Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance
by Andrew NDB
Summary: A crossover of the 4Kids cartoon TMNT, movie TMNT, Archie TMNT, & Mirage Comics TMNT. With their very existance in jeopardy, the Mirage TMNT must travel across universes to stop a great evil threatening their very reality. Sequel to "TMNT : Transcension."
1. Prologue

****

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"

**Prologue**

_**"We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears.  
We must not demean life by standing in awe of death."**_  
- David Sarnoff

**The End of Time (Dimension Null); July 25TH, 3689 A.D.**

"Ah, yes. This is my kind of place... my kind of time," a deep, raspy voice cackled. The figure of the body it was attached to slowly materialized to very little fanfare near the craggy summit of Mount Vesuvius. He had come here, to this familiar place—the End of Time—frozen a fraction of a millisecond in the year 3689 before the end of all things to try and confirm his suspicions.

Against the eerie red sheen of the translucent energies of Entropy—absolute nothing—swirling madly in the sky just above the summit, the figure's features were hard to make out, save for a pair of stout horns atop his head. His sardonic, almost otherworldly laugh echoed throughout his mountainous surroundings. "Italy is always so nice in the summer."

Without hesitation or caution, the figure made his way up to a small man-made dais. Peering over the edge, he gazed down into the magma bubbling some twenty meters beneath.

"Like a kettle of trouble, cauldron boil, and baby, cauldron _bubble!" _the figure boomed at the magma, laughing again to himself. "Sometimes I'm beside myself..."

Waving a hand, the magma seemed to instantaneously obey an unspoken command. It stopped bubbling and froze, its surface beginning to reflect light until it became a shimmering display field. Pictures of Earth—different Earths—displayed on the viewer, each image cascading over the last.

"Hmm..." The figure observed the imagery with curiosity. "Dimension A should be the only dimension still active... so what is this..." In dismay, he waved a hand so as to change the viewer's display. His suspicions were confirmed. "Dimension B has been resurrected!" The images he saw was a collage of different points in that dimension's history as it related to his hated enemies, the Ninja Turtles, the highlights of which including sharing the stage with Vanilla Ice and the addition of a female Turtle. The images closer to the present, however, seemed different in appearance somehow... smoother, almost computer graphic-like... but were clearly the same dimension nonetheless.

He swiped his arm forward again, changing the display once again. "Dimension C, reconstituted as well...?" The rather colorful imagery showed the multi-colored bandannaed Turtles in action, fighting some mousers in the sewer with a solidly red-haired companion. "No, wait. This is not Dimension C... this is Dimension _E, _the Shogun's creation... he just didn't have enough time to impose it as Reality, as I suspected." As he looked on, he confirmed that Dimension C, Dimension D, and Dimension X were still utterly annihilated—there would be no respite for their worlds and universes, even if his own was amongst them. "Yet something is happening in Reality... something is happening that is giving these Dimensions... these _Turtles_ second chances." The figure sneered, both fists clenching as his eyes glared red for an instant. "It's settled, then. I will travel there, to Reality... I will put a stop to the Turtles' resurgence at the _source_ and nip their curse in the bud."

Chuckling with glee at what he was about to set off to do, the figure distractedly noticed a mask on the ground not far from his feet. It was an ornate Japanese _noh_ mask, a couple of cracks near its brow. The figure reached down and swiped up the mask, holding it before him and staring into its eye holes. "Ah, Shogun... poor Shogun... poor, misguided Shogun. You had all the tools you needed after we made our deal but your thinking, my dear boy, was simply wrong, wrong, _wrong."_ He shook his head callously. "Worry not, though, Shogun, I may not complete whatever foolish, misguided vision you were after... but what I can promise you is vengeance."

The figure unceremoniously tossed the _noh_ mask into the magma far below. Snapping a finger, he was gone.

* * *

**The 79TH Level of Null-Time (Dimension Null)**

"Oh my... something's not right..."

Supreme Timestress Renet Tilley winced as she approached the Palisade's Transdimensional Observatory, her flowing white robes dragging behind her. She sensed it the very moment she walked into the door, the sheer sense of wrong nearly overwhelming her where she stood.

"Computer," she spoke, almost afraid to do so, "magnify sectors one through four, quadrants four-three, three-four, two-two... and one-four."

Images flashed from left to right across the holoprojected field at the chamber's wraparound wall, viewing the collective Turtles midway into the year 2006. Grim visions they were—visions of the Turtles laying as wrinkled forms, blood draining from the very pores of their bodies as they fell dying to their knees crying out for a help that would never come.

She had known for days something was creating an instability in the different timestreams, but this... Before Renet's very eyes, the Turtles buckled, withered, and died. Their screams of anguish and death rattles echoed throughout the Observatory.

In every active dimension, whether it be A, B, or E, the end result as it played out seemed identical. As it stood, it seemed an unavoidable conclusion to reach—the Turtles were doomed to die in the year 2006, the sixth year of the Third Millennium.

Doomed... but they were _not_ fated.

"This... is not supposed to happen... not in 2006, not like _this..." _As her eyes reddened and welled, tears streaked down Renet's cheeks. "Someone is tampering with the dimensions again... tampering with _history_..."

Renet wiped away her tears, forcing herself to regain her composure. Retrieving her digital Sacred Sands of Time Sceptre from its holster beneath a fold in her robes she brandished it before her.

She spoke, determinedly, "I'd better get the guys."

There wasn't much time left.

* * *

**Earth (Dimension Null); Los Angeles, CA, June 12TH, 2006 A.D.**

Throwing his backpack down and closing the door on his way into his bedroom, a bruised nearly seventeen year-old Leon let himself collapse on his unmade bed. It had been a rough day at school enough before sticking up for a friend at lunch time had gotten him into a fist fight with a Samoan gangbanger after school.

Resting for a few moments, he sat up, ruffled his blond hair, and clicked open his cell phone. He had a few text messages, a couple from his friend, Jason, thanking him for "watching his back." His features perked up as he saw the name on the last text message to him sent a little under a half hour ago, Amanda. It was succinct, yet its words instantly cut into Leon like razors: "leon, amanda. we're threw, dont call me back.......k thx byebye ttyl."

"She's going to break up with me... with _a damned text message?"_

Tossing the cell phone across the room and throwing himself back down on the bed he closed his eyes, his mind slowly but surely wandered to another place, another time. One by one he saw his brothers Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo hovering around him, making fun of his girlfriend problems... they called him "Leonardo"... Raphael sometimes called him "fearless leader."

Leon smiled, indulging himself in those memories, six years behind him now. Things were so much simpler in that time, the life that seemed so long ago. It was easy to be sixteen years old there... his biggest problems were solved easily enough with the stroke of a sword, his brothers there by his side following his lead. And Splinter... _Splinter... _

Leon stood up, shaking those long-forgotten thoughts away. Those were figments of his imagination, nothing more. He'd already wasted six years waiting to wake up from his current life, as if he truly believed it was only a dream and his imagined life as a Ninja Turtle was the reality. How his parents, his sister, and everyone in his life tolerated his delusions for so long he would never know, but he was grateful for the patience.

Giving a long sigh, Leon went to his backpack, retrieving his binder and the formidable amount of homework he had ahead of him that night.


	2. Chapter 1 : Falling Down

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter One  
FALLING DOWN**

_**  
**_**_"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."_**  
- Friedrich Nietzsche

**Earth (Dimension Null); Los Angeles, CA, June 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

It was a pool party to end all pool parties! Venice High's Class of 2006 was celebrating their final year of school—in unofficial and unsupervised capacity, of course—in style.

_"Cannonball! Whoo!"_ Jason screamed to the top of his lungs as he plunged in. Several bikini-clad cheerleaders giggled at the sight. Jason got out as quickly as he had jumped in and winked at the ladies.

"You still got it, Jay!" Leon said, patting his friend on the back. "By the way... you seen Amanda anywhere?"

"Yo, give it a rest, man! I told you from day one, she don't give a shit about you!"

Leon's brow furrowed. He could smell more than a hint of alcohol on his friend's breath. "Well, I don't know if—"

"Look, bro, she basically told you off in that message, right? Besides, look at all the cuties around here! Are you blind? Man, screw Manda! It's her damn loss! But yo, didja see Sarah over there in the strawberry red suit? Man, she's _totally_ been eyeing you! Why don't you go talk to her?"

Leon rolled his eyes but nodded just the same. Jason's enthusiasm was as infectious as ever. Moreover, he may have had a point. "Yeah, sure. I guess I'll do it if it'll shut you up!" With that, he walked off to the other side, narrowly avoiding several young couples who were making out in the middle of the place with their bathing suits barely sticking to their bodies. _Man, would Michaelangelo love to be here!_ He thought quietly to himself. "Mikey," he spoke sadly, just as he started toward the beautiful blond his friend had mentioned. Leon shoved the memory of his fictional brother aside just as he then came to approach the girl.

His former schoolmate gave Leon her best girlish smile, her finger dancing around the edge of what looked like a daiquiri. "Hey, Leon! How've you been? I really liked seeing you in English class this year!"

"Yeah, I know. It's what you wrote in my yearbook," Leon spoke back. "So, um, what are your plans for the summer?"

"Oh, nothing in particular... except this trip I'm taking with my boyfriend to Jamaica."

"Boyfriend...?" _Jason, you prick! She wasn't checking me out, she just wanted to talk!_ "I-I'm sorry. I didn't even know you had a boyfriend."

"Well, he's sorta the quiet type. We met at a church social where our moms are both in the choir. We're a very friendly group of people. You know, you ought to come out to the Youth Group some time."

Leon nodded, his enthusiasm waning. "That might be nice. Anyway, I really should apologize for my reaction. I just got out of a relationship."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," the girl said solemnly, affectionately rubbing Leon's arm.

"Eh, no biggie! My pal over there who was just showboating his cannonball dive told me I should talk to you about hooking up. Frickin' dumbass, didn't even know you're already taken!"

"Awww! Well, hey he was just trying to cheer you up! Besides, I bet there's over a ton of nice girls just like me who would love to get the hook up with you!" the girl said in a kind of sickly sweet manor.

It was all Leon could do not to roll his eyes. He gave a shrug. "I guess it couldn't hurt. Maybe I'll see you around the mall or something, okay?"

"Sure thing, Leon. Have a nice summer!"

Leon let out a sigh as he wandered back over to Jason. His goofball friend was making a childish smirk. "You knew, didn't you?"

"What can I say, Leon? I'm just trying to help you get back in the game! You need to at least get to know these girls before you can even think of attempting to date one!"

"No shit, Sherlock! Thank God I was able to save face, at least. She does seem really nice, though. I wonder what lucky son of a gun's going out with her... oh well. At least she gave me more respect in those last few minutes than Manda gave me in the last few weeks of our relationship."

"So I take it you got over her now, huh?" Jason asked.

Leon nodded as he shook his pal's hand and a gave him a heartfelt hug. "You've been a good pal, Jason! Hope you have fun out there in Arizona with your family!"

"You have yourself a good time at that comic convention of yours. Coming up, isn't it?"

Leon nodded emphatically. He was looking forward to the yearly ritual of returning there. "Yeah, it is. Thanks man."

The two friends parted as the clock struck 11:00 PM. All was quiet as Leon headed towards his car in the parking lot when he overhead a wailing sound. "What the frig?" the boy whispered under his breath, as he walked over towards the figure. It was a girl, in her early twenties by the look of her who had evidently had a little too much to drink. "Who the hell are you?!" Leon asked.

"Leonardo... please! _Please,_ I beg you!" the woman spoke between coughs. "Your brothers need you! They are in dire trouble! We have never met, and I know my appearance right now is questionable... but you can call me... Cheri Bones! I am from a dimension your former future self destroyed some six years ago! I am a refugee from there, barely managing to escape the Entropy's force along with a few other beings from my world."

_The Entropy? My former future?_ Leon had done his best to not think about such things for many years.

"The Shogun, Leonardo. It was he who started this, and now it is his successor... an evil demon from my dimension... _your_ demon... who plans to _end_ it!"

"My demon, what do you... _Shogun! _But it, it can't be. It... it never happened! It couldn't have! That was all just a _dream!_ I'm not a Ninja Turtle!"

"I did not say you were a Ninja Turtle, you did," the girl pointed out weakly. "My real name is... well, you do not yet know my real name. After escaping the Shogun I transcended into this form, just as you transcended into the body you have possessed for over half a decade now."

"No! _It's not real! Just get the fuck away from me!"_ Leon screamed, as he grabbed his keys and jumped into his car. He revved the motor of his Camry as fast as he could and sped off.

Cheri Bones couldn't help but weep as she crumpled to the ground, her pale brown skin changing to a bright blue-purple shade. She could no longer sustain her human form in the current state of mind, so she vanished out of sight.

* * *

**The 79TH Level of Null-Time (Dimension Null)**

Within the walls of the Palisade, the thirty-four year-old Ninja Turtles of Dimension A in the year 2006, sans Leonardo, emerged. In place of where Leo might have been standing instead stood Venus DeMilo—or Mei Pieh Chi—of Dimension B. She now wore a red bandana across her eyes and a brown belted getup just like the outfits the Turtles she now accompanied.

The Mistress of Time, the ever-youthful Renet Tilley stood before them. "My, my, my. It's been quite awhile hasn't it?"

"Since the funeral two years ago, Renet," Michaelangelo spoke.

Renet nodded. "That was actually my younger self you met... you see, from my perspective, I attended that funeral ten years ago but I was with you guys when we took on the Shogun just a couple of months ago." She saw Michaelangelo and the others begin to figuratively scratch their heads. "It's best, like, not to think about it too much... you'll get a headache every time."

Mike shook his head. "Well, needless to say, Renet, you missed quite a lot. And even with your younger self or whatever at the funeral, we really didn't have a chance to sit down and catch up with each other."

Renet nodded. "I can tell just by looking at Donatello and Raphael. If you remember, I told you and your brothers those changes wouldn't be permanent before we set off against the Shogun. That was fifteen years ago to you guys, isn't it?"

"Sixteen years, 1990," Don spoke, nodding. He explained, "My shell and Raph's eye were able to regenerate into their original forms. Apparently our—mutated—reptilian genetics were able to utilize some dormant genes of relative species that can re-grow lost limbs and such."

"Yeah, but the worst part was when the cybernetic armor tried to keep Don from healing," Raph grunted, apparently feeling sickly. "If it weren't for some quick thinking, Mikey and I would've never gotten that metal shit off!"

_And I took a few pointers from a fellow cyborg as well, Baxter Stockman, my prisoner back then... but no one needs to know about that,_ Donatello thought to himself.

"Nevertheless, I am afraid I have some horrible news to tell you guys. There has been an anomaly in the timestream... in the entire transdimensional continuum. In every dimension you Turtles exist, something... is happening to you."

"I think I know why." Donatello stepped forward. "I took blood samples from my brothers and I... the mutagen in our bloodstreams is destabilizing. We're demutating... and our bodies can't take it so our cells are breaking down, basically combusting on themselves."

"You're right..." Renet agreed, "... but you're also wrong. The timestream is being maligned... according to each of your respective histories, you are not supposed to die in this way! The root of your ailment lies not in your blood, guys, but somewhere else."

"What do you mean?" Don asked. "Where?"

Renet shrugged helplessly. "I can't say, exactly, because it's emanating from a place my powers can't touch. This dimension has no name, but it somehow overlooks all of the dimensions I'm familiar with. For the simply lack of a better word, I tend to call this dimension 'Reality,' if there can be such a thing."

"But how do we stop what's happening to us?" Raphael asked with a glare.

Renet gave a heavy sigh. "I can't tell you what to do or where to go or even who or what you'll face, but I can pinpoint a location in this 'reality' that seems to be a focal point of your ailments. It's as if a great, invisible hand is reaching through the dimensional gateways and squeezing each of your throats... I can't describe it." She shook her head. "In a moment I'll send the five of us to San Diego, California in this Reality, July 20th of the year 2006 A.D."

Donatello rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I still don't feel right about this... I mean, if time is being screwed with, why are just Ninja Turtles being singled out?"

"You're right, it does seemed focused on you Turtles alone in every dimension it's affecting... but the paradoxes from these tamperings are also placing your world at large on the verge of collapsing as it nearly did before when..." Renet lowered her head.

"The Shogun," Venus spoke angrily. "He killed everyone I knew and loved and now his actions have caused some effect on me and these Turtles of this dimension! I think Donatello is right, I think we are dying, Renet!"

Donatello put an arm on Venus' shoulder. "Please... Venus..."

"But the Shogun is... Leo. An older Leo," Mike responded. "After we killed that bastard, our Leo disappeared. So much has changed and he never even saw what became of... our sensei."

"You just had to fucking bring that up again, didn't you?!" Raph spat at his brother. "Leo wasn't there to see Splinter keel over and die while we were busy saving April from sudden death!!! Boo fricken' _hoo!"_

"Now wait, you—"

"Enough, Raphael!" Renet spoke in an almost motherly tone. "I did not summon you here to have you quarrel amongst one another! We're here to, like, prevent whatever evil has befallen time and creation." Renet waved her hand over the viewscreen where energies swirled and coursed to display the three current dimensions as seen in the distant future.

"That's our home dimension, there where the Utroms are now visiting," Mike spoke, pointing a finger at one section of the viewer. "But what in God's name are those other two?"

"They both seem to be similar worlds, but with some odd differences I just can't seem to make out," Don answered.

"I did mention other dimensions... _plural._ They appear to be more or less reconstituted versions of the dimensions that the Shogun obliterated," Renet explained as Dimension B began to show the different points in its timeline like before.

"That is Dimension B!" Venus exclaimed with glee. "It is... it is my home world! I cannot believe it! After all this time, I can finally—"

"Venus, please understand. From the very best I can tell your former dimension is highly unstable right now, entire portions being rewritten even as we speak. Specifically... your existence has been compromised, maybe from your extended presence in Dimension A." Renet sighed. "But that is not why we are here! We must journey to Reality and find your long lost brother."

Raphael winced, his eyes widening at Renet. "Our brother... he _lives?"_

"He does. I believe he is the key to finding the evil presence that has befallen us."

The four Turtles took hold of Renet's cloak as she raised her arm up high, releasing raw chronal energy that opened the dimensional rift which quickly engulfed them where they stood.


	3. Chapter 2 : Conventional Turtles!

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter Two  
CONVENTIONAL TURTLES!**

_  
**"**_**_Some stories are true that never happened__."_**  
- Elie Wiesel

**Earth (Dimension Null); San Diego, CA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

With a violent and untamed wave of chronal energies and gravitons, the four Turtles and Renet materialized on a quaint enough sidewalk. It seemed to be mid-afternoon, the sun out in full force, and there was a heavy traffic of children, teenagers, and adults alike walking

A teenaged kid and what looked to be his father or older brother—evidently both dressed up like Superman and Superboy—stopped and stared at the fivesome. "Whoooa, awesome light show, dude!" the kid piped.

Raphael nodded and chuckled. "You like that, Supershrimp, you ain't seen nothing ye—_ow!"_ Raph rubbed the back of his head after Michaelangelo smacked him on the back of it.

"We gotta blend in, Raph," Mike scolded Raph.

Raphael harrumphed. In a broad gesture, he waved his arms around him, pointing at the various passer-bys all headed in the same direction. He began skipping around, almost doing a mock-dance in front of his brothers, Venus, and Renet. "Look around you, guys... take a good frigging look! This is some kinda _freak_ festival—we'll be all right, y'know?"

"Just the same, Raphael," Venus began, "Let us not completely throw caution to the wind... just yet."

"That's right," Renet agreed. "You guys may be able to walk around freely while this... festival here is going on, but don't take it for granted—it is only in your own dimension that the Utroms land and have their peace conference in 2004 that allow mutants and aliens to freely walk the streets of mankind."

"Whatever," Raphael grunted. "Let's go."

The five made their way into the general flow of traffic, all congregating toward a structure that appeared to be near the coast. It wasn't a tall building, but extended back a considerable distance. Palm trees lined the scenic street before its entryway.

Renet paused for a moment, drawing the digital Sacred Sands of Time Sceptre from her robes. She examined the readout on its base, nodded, and tucked it back away. "Confirmed... there's definitely something inside that building. I can't be sure if it's the source, but it's certainly related to it somehow."

They were nearly at the gates when a man stopped dead in his tracks in front of them.

"Oh... oh... oh, holy crap!" a twenty-something man in strange attire with a strange plastic helmet shouted at the top of his lungs. "Dawn, Brina, GW... get your butts over here!"

Raphael lunged forward and got in the man's face. "Move your ass, fanboy! _Yeow!" _Raphael turned angrily back to Mike, who raised his hands helplessly. He turned to Venus, the true culprit this time, who wagged a motherly finger at him. "Yeah, yeah..."

The helmeted man fidgeted, clearly nervous in front of the gathering. Quickly he was joined by three women, each wearing some article of green clothing that seemed to display various incarnations of the Turtles. As if with the women next to him bearing witness to the Turtles as well he could somehow believe what he was seeing was true, he began to speak more confidently, "M-my name is Dave... my friends call me Tokka."

"My name is Dawn, or Dawnatello," a lady with straight brown hair spoke, a grin from ear to ear. "Don't worry about Tokka... he's still trapped in his terrible twos!"

Dave nodded emphatically. "You got that right!"

"You can call me Brina," another lady spoke. "It's... it's a pleasure to meet Turtle fans with... such awesome costume-making skills."

Dawn nodded at Renet. "Forgive me if I'm a little bit rusty, but you look like the Renet from... about issue number forty-two, yes? Volume one? Am I right?"

Renet bit her lip, blushing at the sudden attention. "Um..."

Greenwillow cast a glance at Venus, smiling. "I love the costume, miss, but may I ask... why the red bandanna? Venus wore a baby blue bandanna, if memory serves."

Venus bowed at the woman, meeting her glance respectfully in the manner in which it was intended. "I wish to... honor my new family; share their color."

Dave looked giddy, waving a finger gleefully at Venus. "Wow, I mean, wow! Even the _voice!_ Check this _ooout!"_

The Turtles gave a sigh. The last thing they were expecting was to be celebrities in this new reality, complete with their own fan club. It took all of Raphael's discipline to hold himself back from tearing a path through these people right then and there.

"Easy, Raph... easy..." Mike whispered to his brother, noting his rising temper.

The three ladies and Dave exchanged a knowing glance. Suddenly, they all nodded, as if sharing the same thought.

Dawn was the first to speak, "You guys gotta come inside. You simply _must_ meet Kevin Eastman! Oh man, he's gonna get a kick out of this for sure, guaranteed, you'll see!"

Donatello winced. "Kevin who...?"

"Kevin _E, _man!" Dave exclaimed, working himself up. "Kevin _E! _The man himself! You guys gonna tell me you're wearing costumes like _that_ and don't know who the _man _is? Awww... c'mon, c'mon!"

With that, grudgingly, the Turtles and Renet allowed themselves to be shepherded up the short stairs and on their way into the Convention Center itself.

A twenty-something man with blond hair in a Spider-Man costume walked out of the Convention Center as the Turtles and the other fans headed in, a girl about his age with him and another man as well. "So yeah, Andrew," he spoke to the goateed man walking beside him, "I was thinking, y'know when we wrote the second chapter of that story last year—"

"Jeff, _look!"_ the goateed man shouted, pointing a finger at the Turtles as they disappeared inside. "What the fuck?!"

"Holy shitballs!" the Spider-Man fan exclaimed, looking perplexed. "Isn't this... just as we..."

* * *

"This way, follow me," Greenwillow spoke back to the Turtles.

Passing some enthusiastic Ghostbusters posing for a photo—strangely, there seemed to be five of them—the fivesome and their guiding fans navigated their way through the crowd of Batmans, Catwomen, Borg, Mr. Spocks, and other costumed fans of comic books, science fiction, as well as many other multimedia fantasy at large.

A couple of mid-twenties boys dressed like Power Rangers in full regalia snickered and laughed as the Turtles and their entourage made their way through the gathering of who were apparently

The lead Power Ranger made a snide remark, barely able to hold himself back from laughing, "Nice... _pfft..._ costumes... very... _pfft..._ retro..."

Raphael missed a step on purpose, stumbling forward with his elbow jabbing forward to catch the taller Power Ranger in the nose of his helmet as he made a big showing of losing his balance. Raph came back up as the Power Ranger stumbled back, a little bit disoriented. "Sorry, man... I have to watch where I'm going! My bad!"

Neither Mike or Renet, over even the four fans that were leading them through the crowd, made any comment as they passed the Power Ranger duo. It was Venus, instead, who spoke as they passed, giggling, "It is Morphing Time!"

None noticed the duo giving the Turtles the finger after they were long behind them.

Further navigating their way through the thick gathering of fans, the Turtles and their fans finally came to a fateful table near the easternmost corner of the inside of the Convention Center.

Magazines were on display both on the table itself and on the wall behind him, something called "Heavy Metal."

Dave rushed up and sat on the edge of the table, nodding to the man sitting there. "Yo, Eastmaaan," he greeted the man. "Yo, my man, check these five _out! _Whoo-ah!"

The man at the table seemed genuinely taken aback by his five visitors. "Wow... my god, Jim Henson and Chiodo Brothers be damned, where did you four get your hands on those suits?"

The Turtles and Renet exchanged a measured, quizzical glance.

Ending the uncomfortable silence, Donatello finally offered, "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?"

The man gave a hearty laugh, stood from his chair, and offered his hand. One by one, he shook each of the Turtles' hands along with Renet's, to whose he gave a gentlemanly kiss before sitting back down. "Kevin Eastman," the man introduced himself, "great to meet you guys! You're just _killing_ me with those costumes, goodness! _Killing_ me!"

"Hey, who's killing who here?" Raphael said with a sneer.

Renet quietly pulled Dave, Greenwillow, Brina, and Dawn aside. "Would it be too much trouble for you to... give us a few moments alone with Mr. Eastman?"

Dave nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely! You guys probably got stuff to discuss... movie plans, I bet! Forget that CGI business, you guys have the lo—"

"Thank you... Tokka, was it?"

Left alone with Kevin Eastman, the Turtles and Renet now converged over his table.

"So tell me," Eastman began, "I see the four of you here, Venus among you—love the red bandanna, by the way—I gotta ask... where's Leonardo?"

Renet gave a sigh. "That's kind of why we're here."

Eastman cocked an eyebrow curiously. "Oh...?"

Renet took a deep breath and dove in. "This is going to sound... probably insane. Crazy, even. Nonsensical. All I ask is that you... at least humor us, just for five minutes, and assume that we're not completely insane."

Eastman looked around him, at the Turtles all leaning over his table, Renet acting as the ringleader directly in front of him. Suddenly, for Eastman, it seemed the walls were getting a lot closer. "Um... all right... I'll play."

"We are here because we believe you are responsible for a disease that is killing us," Venus spoke, her voice even. "Additionally... we think you may have something to do with... or at least know something about... the disappearance of a member of our family. You know his name, you spoke it."

"Leonardo?"

"Tell us who you are, what your connection is to these Turtles," Renet asked simply.

"You mean... you don't know? You really don't know?" Kevin gave a sigh. When many moments of silence passed, he had his answer. "Well, let's see..." His gaze wandered around the room. "In 1983, with another guy by the name of Peter Laird, I helped create the... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Raphael grunted. "How sweet of you. Keep talking, Big Daddy."

"I _love_ the attitude, your role-playing! You're just so very... Raphael!" Kevin remarked, hearing the Turtle grumbling shortly thereafter. "Well, it all started as a black and white comic... with Turtles that look very much you four... and then became a cartoon series, action figure line, video game series, movie series... suffice to say, things took off!" Kevin paused, as if reflecting on things himself. "Eventually things died down a bit... the cartoon was cancelled... some comics were cancelled... we tried to do a live-action series with a female Turtle—that'd be _you,_ sweetie," Eastman nodded to Venus, who tipped her head respectfully, "... but it never really caught on as strongly as Fox Kids would have liked, so it got the axe."

Venus seemed slighted. "I got... the axe?"

"Hey, don't take it personally, honey," Eastman quipped. "I was going to have you be in the fourth live-action movie. We were almost set to go... my wife, Julie Strain, was gonna play the baddie from another dimension, it was going to be about Kirby and his dream crystal and... oh," he stopped himself, "back on point. Anyway, so we're at about 1997, 1998 now. There was still the Image Comics, Volume 3, going... I dunno, a lot of the fans didn't really catch on. Y'know, they made Donatello a cyborg, took away his shell, Raphael's eye—"

"And it hurt like a bastard, by the way," Raphael seethed. He leaned even more forward, Donatello, too.

"Mr. Eastman," Donatello spoke, painful memories brought back to the surface, "why do I get a feeling you're responsible for these things?"

Eastman drew back. "Hey, hey, hey... before you get all worked up, lemme tell you you're barking up the wrong tree. The live-action TV show was the last thing I really had my fingers on... when that crashed and burned I pretty much said that's it. You want to punch somebody's lights out about that stuff, I can give you Erik Larsen and Gary Carlson's address... really..."

Renet shook her head. "Please, Mr. Eastman. If you are who you say you are, you may be the key to what's happening... if you created the Ninja Turtles, your fate may be intertwined with the malady that has stricken these Turtles."

Eastman shrugged helplessly. "Look, I know Ninja Turtles have made a big comeback since the nineties... there's a new cartoon now, a new CGI movie coming out next year, a new toy line, new video game line... things are really in a good way for Turtles now... but the truth is, I have nothing to do with it anymore. Not a thing, not even moral support."

Donatello winced. "What do you mean by that? You are saying you created us in this... this reality. Surely you do... own the rights to us, right?"

Kevin Eastman leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. "Call me crazy, call me stupid—god knows I do, sometimes, Julie, too—but no, I don't. Not anymore, folks."

"And we should believe you... why?" Raphael asked.

"Yeah, why would you give up on some sexy mutants like us?" Mike inquired, jokingly.

Venus jabbed him in the side. "You could talk like that in our home in the toilet, not here, Michaelangelo!"

_"Sewer,_ Venus, _sewer!"_ Mike corrected her. "Good god, sixteen years, you _still _haven't gotten it right, and we don't even _live_ there anymore!"

The female Turtle grunted. "Do not shout at me."

"All right, Eastman, you _still_ haven't answered my question," Raphael persisted.

Eastman sighed. "Look, what you do is up to you... but to tell the truth, you're kind of creeping me out right now and I think your five minutes are almost up."

"I do apologize, Mr. Eastman," Renet said. "Do go on. I promise you we will not bother you much longer, just please tell us more."

Eastman leaned forward again and, rubbing a hand over his face, continued, "Yeah, so, around 2000 I sold my half of the rights to Peter Laird. All of it, the whole kitten caboodle."

"May I ask why?" Venus asked.

Eastman ran a finger over one side of his closely-cropped mustache. "That would depend on who you ask. Some would tell you... I'd given up after the live-action series... that I thought I'd done all I could do, so I turned it over to Laird to see what he could do with it—Lord knows we didn't see eye-to-eye over you, the female Turtle, but I went to bat for you." He gave a bemused chuckle. "Others would tell you I just wanted to concentrate on _Heavy Metal..._ that I wanted to distance myself from the Ninja Turtles, both in the interests of my time as well as my day-to-day focus. Others yet might even tell you... _I lost the damned card game." _Eastman broke out laughing for a second.

"I'm real glad we amuse you, Eastman," Raphael spoke.

Eastman gave another sigh, regaining his composure. "You ask an honest question, sometimes you get an honest answer. But I'll tell you Turtles, you fans, or whatever you are... if you guys are looking for the guy in charge of the Ninja Turtles now... the head honcho... you guys are looking for Peter Laird, then."

"Can you tell us where we can find him?" Renet asked.

"Catch a plane to Northampton, Massachusetts. Look up Mirage Publishing. You'll find your man there." Eastman nodded to the fans that had escorted the Turtles to his table, Greenwillow, Dave, Brina, and Dawn. "Those fans over there can probably point you in the right direction if you need any more help." Eastman stood from his chair, regarding the five in front of him with a stern expression. "Now if you don't mind, I think I've been pretty liberal with your five minutes..."

After the Turtles stalked off, Renet stayed a moment longer to bid Eastman a courteous, "Thank you for your time," before rejoining them.

As they began heading out the way they came in, once again having to contend with the gathered mass of various fandoms, Renet shook her head. She seemed to be in a state of disbelief.

"What's wrong, Renet?" Venus asked.

"I'm not sure... I know I wasn't certain if the source was at this location... but I _was_ certain that at least a fairly large piece of the puzzle would be here. If it's not this Kevin Eastman character, then..."

A lone teenager with blond hair, about seventeen, dropped the stack of comics he had been carrying in his hands and came to a standstill in front of the Turtles and Renet. His jaw lowered at once yet he didn't make a sound.

It wasn't like the other fans they'd met, this was something else... something _deeper._

"What you lookin' at, kid?" Raphael challenged the teenager.

"I-I don't believe it..." the teenager spoke at last. He looked uncertain, his posture wavering. He looked as if his knees would give out at any moment. "It's... it's been so long... I-I... thought I was crazy... everyone did..."

"Spit it out, kid," Don spoke, with Raph on this one. "We're on a real _tight_ schedule, if you catch my drift."

"I-I know you don't recognize me," the kid continued, his voice desperate now, "but it's me! It's Leonardo!"

All eyes fell on the blond teenager.


	4. Chapter 3 : Brotherhood

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter Three  
B R O T H E R H O O D**

_  
**"**_**_The language of friendship is not words but meanings__."_  
**- Henry David Thoreau

**Earth (Dimension Null); San Diego, CA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

"Oh great! Just what we need, another freaked-out _fanboy_ jumping down our fucking throats!"

"Raphael, that is enough!" Venus said sternly. Someone had to say it.

"Come on, buddy. You need to calm yourself already before you draw any further attention!" Donatello said, placing his hand on his brother's arm.

"Hello?! Yeah, if you haven't noticed, Donny, we're a little bit on the verge of _dying _here!" Raph snarled bitterly in Don's ear. "The last thing I could give two dicks about is being polite to all these damn nerds!"

The blond-haired teenager didn't falter, clearly having a lot to get off of his chest. "Please listen... hear me out... in this body, people call me Leon, but I really am your Leonardo; your... brother."

Michaelangelo, meanwhile, was staring at the strange boy who had confronted them. The Turtle stared at Leon for what seemed like hours, as if trying to get a good look at the soul beyond the blonde haired face. "I dunno, Renet. Jeeze, some... some strange part of me wants to believe this kid. I-I just don't..." Mike began to get a dizzy sensation and he nearly collapsed.

Renet quickly grabbed hold of her friend as he rubbed his weak temples. "Mikey? Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yea, I just got... _mondo_ light headed, dudette!" Michaelangelo said. Strangely, his voice now sounded like a Californian accent.

"Whoa, sweet, did that guy just talk like Townsend Coleman?" a passer-by dressed in a Beast Boy costume spoke, walking beside his girlfriend dressed as Raven.

Renet bit her tongue until the two young Teen Titans fans left. She then turned her gaze back to Mike, who was now wearing an orange bandanna with matching arm and kneepads, letter "M" now on his belt.

"Like what's wrong, dudette? You seem kinda freaked out! Oh hey, I forgot to ask, do they have pizza at this shindig?"

Leon was stunned at the sudden transformation his brother took on. "Th-that's Mikey's counterpart from the dimension I once visited... the one where we took out Shredder and Krang."

The now orange-bandannaed Michaelangelo made a triumphant gesture, waving both arms in the right. "Totally right, dude! You were awesome back there, man... you totally set Shredder to rights!" The vaguely cartoonish Turtle winced. "I don't know about your new digs, though, dude... I'm not feelin' them..."

Renet nodded curiously. _Is it true? Is this young man really our Leo? Where has he been all this time_? she thought.

"Um, Renet, you may want to take a look at this," Venus called as she pointed hesitatingly to Donatello who was now in purple attire with a "D" on his belt similar to Mike's orange getup with some rather noticeable differences in belt structure.

Renet gazed into her Sceptre's instrumentation furiously as she spoke the magic words "Timinious Freedisious!" With that, all time in the dimension stopped. The patrons of the Comic Con were all, for all intents and purposes that moment, photographic statues. "God damn it! I did _not_ want to do that!" the Timestress spoke in a bitter tone. "You have no idea how much strain this will put on my power!"

Venus nodded understandably as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"What of my brothers? What's going on here?" Leon asked sternly.

"I-I believe we're seeing the result of the instabilities I detected earlier in the transdimensional continuum," Renet explained. "If I'm right, Mikey just assumed the identity of his long lost counterpart from Dimension C, while Donatello has become his Dimension D counterpart. However, they are the only two dimensions that have not been revived in any way... so I have no idea what will become of you or Raphael."

"I'm still not sure about this kid, Renet!" Raph said, sounding a little more calmed down now that the geeks were no longer capable of pestering them.

"Raphael, I understand your skepticism! Believe me, I'm not so sure myself," Leon said. He gave a long-winded sigh, lowering his head meekly. "I mean it's like, I have all these memories of two lives and... sometimes I don't know which is reality and which is just plain fantasy! Six years is a long time to be told everyday my memories of you guys were just delusions... after so long, I had to believe them..."

Venus laid an arm gingerly over Leon's shoulders. "I can... only imagine how it has been for you, Leonardo."

Leon put his hand over Venus' arm, nodding graciously. "Thank you, Venus."

"I can't say why... but perhaps Leonardo's essence was transferred into this boy's body after the final defeat of the Shogun," Renet figured. "There has been known phenomena where the same beings occupy different bodies in different dimensions... that, a skilled transdimensional traveler could switch between these bodies—it's never been proven, but perhaps the shock of the Shogun's death threw him into Leon here."

"So what, do I just have to gut it out of the kid?" Raphael mused. Almost without knowing he was doing it, he started playing with his sai.

"Hey chill out, bro! Like what's with the hostility?" Michaelangelo spoke.

_Too bad it wasn't Raphael that turned into his cartoon counterpart!_ Leon thought to himself, shaking his head.

"We really better get on a plane already! Remember what Eastman said...?" Donatello spoke, looking back a distance at the now-frozen Kevin B. Eastman, who had been sharing a laugh with the Turtle posse just as the time-freeze took effect. "If Peter Laird is now in charge of our very existence, as it were, then something tells me he's in serious jeopardy!"

* * *

**Earth (Dimension Null); Northampton, MA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

That same moment in the home of Peter Laird, the comic book writer, was busy at home working on the finishing touches to an unfinished script for the fourth volume of the black and white comic, _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles._ A video of the current 4Kids Turtles cartoon played on a plasma screen on his desk, though he wasn't paying any attention to it at the moment..

He took a moment's respite, took a sip of some now-cold coffee, and leaned leisurely back in his leather chair. Turning his head, he whimsically gazed into a withered old picture of him with his former partner Mr. Eastman.

They were so young in those days, their heads full of crazy ideas; dreams.

"Those were the days, Kev, weren't they?" Peter exclaimed with a wistful sigh. Resting back in his chair, he couldn't help but think back to that fateful moment six years ago.

_"So that's really it then," Peter said as he signed the paper. He clicked the ballpoint pen, sticking it back in his pocket, and blew some air on the signature. "You're ready to just going to become a footnote in the history of our creation, is that right?" _

_"Hey, it's all good, old buddy. If I can't trust you, who can I trust?" Kevin said with a heartfelt smile. "Hell, I bet you'll come up with an idea ten times better than _Next Mutation!"

_"I certainly don't doubt that!" Pete responded with a chuckle. "Oh, brother, what were you thinking?" _

_"I'll stick by my story—Saban's meddling! But hey, I'll be all right, man. _Heavy Metal _has been like a dream come true, you know?" Kevin shook his head, mocking his shame. "I just wish Julie had gotten her chance in the fourth movie... y'know." _

_"Would that have been her first big Hollywood project that doesn't involve dirty spank jokes...?" _

_"Hey, I liked _Beverly Hills Cop III, _ass!" Kevin rolled his eyes good-naturedly at the older gentleman. They both stood. "Pete... you know you have always been like the brother I never had." _

"_Same to you, my friend. I won't let you down," he said as they shook hands. "I promise you."_

To the present day, that remained the very last time the two men would speak face to face.

Tears of sentiment filled Peter's eyes.

_Why did I let you do it, Kev... why did I let you walk away..._

Shaking away his memories, Peter did his best to quickly return to his typing. He seemed blissfully unaware of the impending horned shadow that lurked mere feet behind him, stalking his every move.

* * *

**Earth (Dimension Null); San Diego, CA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

Renet, Leon, and the Turtles, with the help of the San Diego Public Transportation system, had made their way to San Diego International Airport within just a matter of minutes.

"Thank god, I thought that bus ride would take fucking forever!" Raph griped.

"It would have been much quicker if you would just remain calm enough for me to speed up the passage of time!" Renet lectured. "I can't keep using up my power like this, or we will be up shit creek in no time!"

"Shit... creek?" Venus said, her curiosity piqued.

Mike patted her on the head. "Not now, Venus."

Leon sighed as he led the others off the bus. "Okay guys, just follow my lead. We have to get past airport security!"

Raphael shook his head. "This is a horrible idea... it's 2006, there wasn't no Utrom landing here two years ago, we're mutant Turtles, our passports from our dimension might as well be Pokemon cards... now unless Venus or Renet are going to do some sort of _massive_ Jedi mind trick then—"

"That's the idea!" Don interrupted Raph.

Before they could even get past the front gate however, a security guard promptly stopped them. "Whoa, slow down, kiddos! Before we let you in, you're gonna have to dispose of those costumes, all right? You folks do have suitcases... don't you?" the officer spoke in suspicion.

"I'm really sorry to say this but we really can't dispose of them," Venus spoke. "You see, we ah…"

"We're naked, dude!" Michaelangelo stated.

"Oh, for chrissake!" Don mumbled, slapping his nose.

Raphael rubbed both hands over his face. "Man, why do I even bother..."

The guard immediately proceeded to escort them back outside. "Look, folks, we really can't handle this kind of crap. Especially not these days... what with all the psycho terrorists and whatnot. So please come back tomorrow with respectable attire on!"

"Venus, remind me again about why I shouldn't make a spectacle out of myself?" Raph asked.

"Why?"

"Because I'm about three seconds away from killing this orange-clad clown over here _for screwing us all over!"_

"Oh, the hell with it already! I can't just stand here idly by watching my friends die!" Renet griped. With that, she took out the Sceptre and instructed the Turtles to grab a hold of her just as they had before, this time with Leon in tow.

Leon smiled as the energies washed over them all, sighing happily. It was good to be back where he belonged.


	5. Chapter 4 : Evil Incarnate

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter Four  
EVIL INCARNATE**

_  
**"**_**_'__Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it__."_  
**- Byron

**Earth (Dimension Null); Northampton, MA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

When the five materialized in Massachusetts, a feeling that they just couldn't describe seized their senses. It was that very pain of loss Renet had experienced when she initially looked into the future, except in its early stages.

"Oop!" Renet spoke, whirling around and nearly getting caught in her cape. "I didn't mean to teleport us here... here, to..."

"No, it's okay!" Leon said. It wasn't until after a few seconds passed that Leon recognized the place she had teleported them to. There could be no doubt. They stood in the middle of the second floor, at the now-vacant Words & Pictures Museum. He announced, "I've never been here before... wanted to... but this is the Words and Pictures Museum!"

"The what?" Raphael asked.

Leon may be Leonardo, but for the past six years he had been occupying the body of an avid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. He knew where they were, even if the others did not.

Leon's momentary excitement waned. Everything there had been in this place had to have been taken down from the walls and put away in storage long before. Cardboard signs and slogans adorned the walls now of the "Cingular" company. "No... this won't do... you guys need to go back a few years if you want to see this place at its prime."

"Now, I can arrange that," Renet spoke with a smile.

Raphael grimaced. "Look, we ain't here to sightsee, we're here to—"

Before the others knew what she was doing, Renet moved them back a few years to its last days of the museum.

"I think… I'm going to vomit... oh yeah..." the Dimension D Donatello sat down on the nearby bench in hopes of easing his nauseating dizziness. Venus ended up collapsing to the floor, unable to withstand the thousands feelings and thoughts of unknown hatred from this reality surrounding her.

Raphael was first to kneel by her, asking what was wrong. The agonizing pain that became to eat from within felt so great now, she could barely reply. Venus resisted his attempts to help her by balling up on her knees. Raphael also felt very weak, with an ever-growing headache. All he could muster was aim a demanding look at Renet for a good answer.

Splinter now frozen behind glass instantly caught Leon off guard. He first wondered if it was a kind of magic spell, wondering why their Master had not moved. Leon pressed his hands against the Plexiglas, staring at the wise rat, when he sensed that this was actually a statue of their master.

On display… like the others he saw in the mysterious Hall of Lost Legends so long ago, a mythical limbo-esque place that they found to be not-so-mythical where all of humanity's forgotten legends ended up. That had been the day they met and confronted Loki/Locke, who had told them upon their arrival... that they had been "early."

The rumors were true…

Leon stepped back, taking a closer look at the place now. Would the others know of this foretelling? Along the wall to his left were framed drawings of them. His brothers captured in various poses and adventures from his dimension as well as others. He could remember many of things happening, as if going through a photo album.

Leo then looked down at himself, also seeing for the first time that he seemed to have both of his three-fingered Turtle hands again. The color of his skin ebbed into gray tones and his new shell strangely grew starch white, with black lines suddenly highlighting his details and features. Looking around, he saw that the others had changed in appearance. Don and Michaelangelo looked like a colored drawing, and more cartoonish. Venus and Raph, they appeared now to be like humans in costume. But Raph, he had lost the white tape on his arms and legs and the washboard plastron that Leo remembered seeing him with just a few minutes before. Instead, his skin had become pale green, with these spots all over.

_What the hell was going on?_

Leon shook his head, shaking away the strange visions out of his mind's eye. He was still a human boy, the Turtles with him were still as he remembered them minutes ago.

"Whoa, Leonardo, you gotta check this. It's us!" Michaelangelo—still the Michaelangelo from Dimension C—touched Leon's arm as he pointed out four statue-like figures of them positioned from a faux brick wall. Actually, they were on a second floor balcony, and the end room the displayed the figures took the space of all three floors. "This is _so_ totally far out," Michaelangelo looked back to Leo and the others. Soon he found an issue of a comic emblazoned with an "Archie Comics" logo entitled "Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures." Flipping through cursorily, Mike gave a _whoop_ of excitement. "Totally radical, dude!"

Renet could only sigh at Mike's excitement, subtly tucking her Sceptre away for the moment. Perhaps now would be best to explain her findings, in hopes it could put them at ease from all this. "It has really just been a theory of mine until now, but, like, much later after we tangled with the Shogun and the transdimensional continuum became... very unstable and I discovered the presence of this Reality..." She sighed. "I believe now it is the humans of this world, through entertainment, which have created the dimensions that we live in."

Michaelangelo whooped. "Totally tubular, dudes!"

"They also decide the future of each dimension's fate as well. Unfortunately, if a dimension failed to exist in this world, it would cease existence from where we came. It wasn't the Shogun we must blame... he was just an instrument of this destiny." She looked to Venus, Michaelangelo, and Donatello with a sympathetic gaze, "Your Dimension C, Michaelangelo, no longer exists here. That cartoon was cancelled."

Mike's features dimmed. "Bummer..."

Leon clapped Mike on the shoulder. "But hey, I hear they're finally bringing them back on DVD finally, the original cartoon. Who knows?"

Renet peered down to Venus, still in pain. "Her world, Dimension B, ended when this... this... _Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation_ was cancelled and there was no chance of a new movie. But it has come back, though I don't know why..."

"The fourth movie!" Leon piped.

Renet winced. "What?"

"Yes, that's it!" Leon declared. "The fourth movie, CGI, coming out next year! The director said he's using the movies as a backstory... he's bringing back Dimension B and not even knowing it!"

"Whatever the case, guys... it's pretty blatant that time is short," Renet said, turning away and starting for the stairs at the other end. "Let's get going."

With a wave of her Sceptre, the Turtles and Leon were thrown further forward into the timestream, back to what they could only assume was 2006.

Leon bent down to help Raph with Venus. "Here, let me help you."

"I got her," Raph spoke, resisting the helping hand. Speaking softly into her ears, he took her into his arms. She barely managed to hang onto his neck, letting out a few more sobs of pain.

"I appreciate... the offer," Venus spoke to Leon weakly.

"God damn… even the worse case of the flu would feel better," Leon spoke.

Raph moved forward with Venus in his arms, Leon close behind, wincing as he looked the teenager up and down. "Easy for you, Leo... stuck in that pretty boy body…"

"If I could trade places with you, bro, I would," Leon said over his shoulder.

"Basically, you are saying the fate of our lives lie in the hands of these humans, and like the classic tale of the _Neverending Story, _we're left to make them believe in us to ensure our survival?" Don asked Renet in the stairwell.

"Nah, I don't think so," Renet sighed, trying his best to explain what little she knew. "In San Diego we saw great evidence that you and your brothers have come back in a big way... a new cartoon, new movie, comics..." She shook her head. "I believe it a malevolent force behind things this time... someone or something is pulling the strings of fate the way they _want_ it to end, not the way it was destined to."

"What do you suggest, by that?" Don rubbed his stiffening neck.

"That's something I have yet to understand." She paused to locate the door from this place. Renet fumbled with what she thought were rather crude locks, and opened the inside door to the screen door on the outside. The timestress looked out, observing the golden sunlight of the mid-morning and the shadows they cast. With everyone's backs turned to the darkened rooms, she also returned the museum back to its present, vacant state. But Renet didn't wish to wait for the traffic to die down and pushed the door open.

"No, wait," Raphael refused to follow, not at all pleased with the amount of exposure this meant. "I rather not go out there, like _this!" _

Renet hesitated, closing the door. She then unfastened and removed her cape, draping it around Raphael's shoulder's just enough to cover some of Venus, too. "Please, we must hurry. The studio isn't far from here," she told all of them before going through the door.

"Ooh, I think she's starting to get soft on Raphael," Michaelangelo whispered to Don.

Renet wrinkled her nose at the Turtles. "Am not!"

Don nodded, but his body shuddered and shook for a moment. An instant later he changed from his Dimension D self to a new self... he now retained his purple bandanna, yet his elbow, knee, and wristbands became brown like Raphael's. The letter vanished from his belt. "It's a Kodak moment! _Nyuck-nyuck!"_

Raphael recognized well this Donatello from his trip to Dimension B, when they'd taken out the Dragon Lord and his Rank.

At that, they left the Words & Pictures Museum, and walked round the block to a small intersection. A three-story red brick building came to view, but Leon implied they had to cross the street first, a street marked "Market Street." "Wow! This must be Mirage Publishing," Leon told the others as they ducked back in a wide alley a moment.

"But where are we?" Don asked.

"Northampton… what, don't you guys all recognize it?" Renet narrowed her eyes. "As much time as you guys spent on Casey's farm it should be like home."

"Actually," Don replied, "there was this one farm... but it was April's."

Leon had noticed a couple buildings next to each other. Offhandedly, they seemed to strongly remind him of April's Second Time Around store that had burnt to the ground years before. "I… can't be sure now. It is like what I remember, but all the buildings are different."

"Inspirations…" Renet breathed. Once the coast was clear, she took lead beside Leon to head toward the red building. The actually studios only occupied the first floor of it, which was good for them. Even better, the door was on the side of the building and out of view. They went through the doors of Mirage to enter a small lobby area. No one was presently at the receptionist desk, but it didn't take long for a couple humans to notice them.

"Excuse me, ah…" a lady started, but the look of dismay on her face said more. "Who… what is this? Dan...?" She looked back to a stocky fellow with red hair and a beard.

Venus, still racked with pain, ran a glance over the man and woman. "Please, time is short!" she managed to burst.

"I'll handle this, Katie," the man spoke. "You just get ready to call the police." He gave a woman standing behind him that the Turtles hadn't initially noticed a stern look. At a glance she looked to be younger than Katie, maybe in her twenties, with dark brown hair and all-green attire. "You'd better clear out of here for a while, Michele."

"I-I... uh..." the young woman began.

"Right now, Ivey!" Dan shouted.

The green-clad lady hesitated, took one good hard glance at the Turtles, and then took off.

"Now, sir, wait, uh… I know this _looks_ really crazy, but we need your guys' help," Michaelangelo stuttered, quick to protest at that.

The two still looked at them, more or less not quite believing any of this quite yet.

"Hey, I'm here to speak with Peter Laird," Raphael spoke with more than a hint of authority, stepping forward. "It's regarding our _survival." _He couldn't shake the feeling as if these were like the gates to some kind of Heaven, and he had to earn the approval from the angels before meeting God.

He wasn't too happy with that.

The red-haired man finally replied with a suitable answer, "Well, I'm afraid Peter doesn't really work here."

"Then where could we find him? We do not have much time," Leon almost demanded, stepping in front of the others. He didn't wish for them to appear so threatening, but time was running short. Plus the thought of Venus dying worried him all the more.

The man studied Venus in Raph's arms, and the ever-growing ill statement on the red-bandannaed Turtle. "Okay, here, why don't we take care of you first... while I get a hold of her? Is that okay?" He turned back to Katie, advising that they should escort them back to the break room area.

"About friggin' time…" Raph muttered. As Dan and Leon took Venus from his arms and helped her stand on her own, Raph finally gave in and grabbed Michaelangelo's shoulder for support as they entered a hallway lined with more artwork and paraphernalia… mostly of them. The infamous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®. Frankly, it only made Raph's misery grow just that much worse.

"You really don't look good, dude," Michaelangelo paused to look at him.

Raph just gave him the weirdest look of annoyance mixed with nausea.

Michaelangelo had to twist his mouth to stifle a laugh that otherwise would have seemed appropriate had it been his own Raphael. "Uhm, I have to ask you guys... where is the bathroom? 'Cause he's, like, uh… not well."

"It's further down this hall, on that side," Katie pointed out the way.

"_Mucho gracias,_ dudette!" With that, Mike did his best to guide his "brother" to the said bathroom.

Upon reaching the break room, with Dan's help Leon took the initiative to ease Venus into a lazy boy in one corner. She had become unconscious now, and he quickly checked her pulse. That and her breath still remained steady. "Venus… wake up. Just hang on, okay?" Leon laid a hand on her hot forehead.

"Okay, from the top, what is happening here? I can get a hold of Peter, but I need some more background before I do." Dan leaned against the counter, looking at them as if he couldn't believe any of this yet. At this point a couple other men joined him, with equally amused looks on their faces.

Renet narrowed her sight on the three, and cleared her throat. They weren't going to make this as easy as it first seemed. "All right. My name is Renet... supreme timestress of the 79TH Level of Null-Time."

"Hmm... I know who you are, you're a pretty popular character... but what's with that kid?" Dan asked with curiosity, nodding at Leon, still comforting Venus.

"He's Leonardo... trapped in a human's body after a battle we waged with a villain called the Shogun some years ago," she explained. "Who are you? What is this place now?"

"I guess we should introduce ourselves then, shouldn't we?" Dan looked to his colleagues. "I'm Dan Berger. Peter and Kevin left me in charge of the Ninja Turtle website."

"Dude, we have a _website,_ too?" Mike gasped, back from the nearby hallway.

"Yep!" Leon piped with a slight smile. "I've seen it!"

"That's awesome!" Mike whooped. He returned to wandering about the hallway near the bathroom then, admiring various pictures and paintings.

Dan smiled. "I also produce my own comic book from here as well. Don't suppose you guys heard of Gutwallow where you come from...?"

"Michael Dooney. I help Dan and Peter Laird on any other various projects... just the covers of Volume Four for now." The other man held out his hand to shake with the Turtles, despite the oddness of it. "I can see you all are very... very... _very_ big Turtle fans."

He looked back to Gary, who shrugged. "Name's Gary Richardson, also a fellow producer. CEO of Mirage Publishing." Dooney pointed at them briefly, "There's no doubt we know the rest of you. But, I got to ask, why the wide range in appearance?"

Leo straightened some from kneeling at the lazy boy, "There's a dimensional instability... I'm Leonardo, but stuck in this damned body the last six years. Michaelangelo and Donatello keep changing between their dimensional counterparts and..." Leon took a deep breath. "It's been a really long day."

"And this is... Renet?" Dooney raised an eyebrow. One could tell by his almost fatherly expression that she had been a comic book character of his sometimes-design. "The ditzy timestress herself, eh?"

"Yes," Leon nodded, wondering now why that seemed amusing. "Except she isn't as ditzy anymore."

"Well now, yes, that really did depend at what time she came from, too," Dooney said with a nod. "You're the older one... you helped the boys here fight Savanti Juliet way back."

Renet gave a fond smile. "I'm glad _somebody_ notices these things."

Don and Leon looked at him, realizing they must also know about their backgrounds. Feeling light headed again, Don sat down at the small table. "I guess then, Peter Laird had… lost the interest in keeping production at full output, then?"

Dan shook his head, "Not at all, most of it was from financial stress… Don. They couldn't meet the demands with the limited budget. We tried to save the comic books by selling them to different publishers. That hadn't gone over well either... Leo—assuming that really is you in there—you ever wonder why, suddenly over the course of just a few months, your hand ended up missing, one of your brothers became a cyborg, and another of them had to go around with an eyepatch...?"

"A really close-knit string of bad luck...?" Leon suggested.

"Not quite. Let's just say when we handed the comic book series—what you would consider your 'dimension'—to Image Comics and Highbrow, certain things had to be done to 'spice' things up to incite reader interest. You guys took the brunt of that... and the sad part is it didn't even work—the series got canned."

"But... what has been Venus's demise?" Leon asked, with mournful eyes that he tried his best to hide.

"She, ah… to put it lightly, was from a failed television show produced by Saban," Dan spoke, nodding. "_The Next Mutation_ was pushed by Saban, thus not being our idea to go on with it. Kevin was the one really pushing the show... Laird had nothing to do with it. When Saban made demands, he went with it. We, well… Peter Laird has decided to disregard Venus and the live-action show as canon and valid T-M-N-T continuum."

"Saban...?" the Dimension B Don squinted his eyes, feeling as if that name should mean something.

"They also produced the _Power Rangers,"_ Dooney nodded to him.

"Power Rangers?" Don looked to him with some surprise. He remembered well teaming with the Power Rangers against the villainous Astronema somewhere around their original confrontation with the Dragon Lord and his entourage. "Ah, we had a run-in, once."

"Yeah," Dooney said with a nod.

Don just groaned, rubbing his temples.

Back at the bathroom, Michaelangelo knocked on the door. He had been plain amused by all the posters, toys and figures and things he saw in Dan Berger's nearby office. But Katie and a couple other folks were giving him weird looks, so the Dimension C Turtle decided he better check on Raphael again.

Hearing nothing, Michaelangelo opened the door and stuck his head inside. "Hey, Raphael…?"

Knelt in front of it, Raph had his arms folded on top of the toilet seat resting his head. "Go away," he mumbled, reaching up weakly to flush.

Michaelangelo did exactly the opposite, and came inside. "Just making sure you're okay, Raph."

"At this rate—and don't call me Raph, I don't know you from shit—there will be no 'okay' for us," he said, rocking back on his haunches so that he was leaning against the wall.

Michaelangelo sighed, and leaned on the sink. It was then he saw this picture of them playing what looked like strip poker, and a laugh came out.

"Mhhh…what is so damn funny now?" Raph glared at this goofy, if not obnoxious, version of his brother.

He pointed to the picture on the wall, but Raph just hung his head in disbelief. _It's the end of our very existence, and he's laughing at a stupid picture. _

"Well… it was funny, dude." Michaelangelo shrugged. "But maybe that's the thing about my dimension… like, we have 'end of the world' threats all the time. I get used to it after awhile, cause we always stop it before that happens."

"Easy for you to say…" Raph looked up to him.

Michaelangelo shrugged then held out his hand to help Raph up. "Wanna get back to the others now…?"

"So basically, Peter Laird has set up his own comic with Jim Lawson, at ZeroMayo Studios in Haydenville," Dooney spoke, also taking a seat at the table. Dan left to make a phone call to Peter, while Gary returned to his work. "The good news is that there is a new Turtle comic Peter Laird is putting out now, simply titled _T-M-N-T_... we're just trying to develop a fanbase again. It's not doing great... truth be told, we're losing money... but we've also got a second _Tales of the TMNT_ volume going as well—some of the old Archie crew are even aboard. Really fun times, actually. New movie coming out next year, I bet you've heard... CGI, Imagi is putting it out with Warner Brothers handling distribution."

Don smiled. "Sweet! I'll watch it on my Turtle-fied eye in the sky!"

Dooney made a sound. "Yeah... okay. Anyway, well, Kevin Eastman... well, he had moved out west to California years ago with his wife to work with his own projects with all things _Heavy Metal._ As you probably know, he also relinquished full Ninja Turtles rights to Peter six years ago," he added, setting his Coke can on the table.

"We've spoken," Renet said.

"Heya, guys," Michaelangelo greeted Dooney and Turtles alike. He saw Leo knelt next to Venus in the lazy boy, and so took a chair next to Don at the table. Raph heavily sat in the last chair, not saying anything. "Would you like anything?" Dooney offered, since they got something for the others to drink.

"I'd like… for this to be the hell over with," Raph muttered.

It was now game. A waiting game... with the clock ticking down the minutes and seconds to oblivion.

Dan Berger came back in at last. "Good news, guys," he spoke. "Peter Laird wants to meet you guys—all of you."

Leon smiled. "I thought he might."

"The strange thing is..." Dan began, "he was about to give me his address to write down when the line cut off. I tried to call him back, but the line seems to be permanently busy..."

Renet and the Turtles looked at each other. That didn't sound good.

Dan shrugged. "Well, anyway, I have his address... so here it is, and I hope you find what you're looking for there. Hopefully he's in a good mood today, too." He extended his hand, holding a sticky note with the said address.

Leon snatched it up, "Thanks, Mr. Berger!"

If their suspicions were true... they really did have no time.

* * *

"This must be the right house, c'mon!"

As they rushed onto the porch the Turtles, Leon, and Renet—having recovered her bearings, at least for the time being—immediately noticed the front door was ajar, pieces of particle board sprayed out across the floor from where apparently a clenched fist had struck the door just above the doorknob. Wasting no time, Raphael kicked open the door and the six rushed inside.

As they stopped in the living room, they found Peter Laird beaten and bruised, held in a grip by a bald-headed, horned man in a black business suit, standing poised to deliver what could be the death blow to him.

"Please... please... what have I done to you?" Laird asked the horned man.

"Oh, for starters? You allowed my dimension—my _world_—to wither and die... you let me be forgotten!" the man thundered at Laird, who was now shaking in fear. "But now, you bloated old fool... _you_ will meet _your_ maker!"

"You stop right there, whoever you are!" Renet bellowed.

The business-suited man with twin horns atop his bald head craned his torso around, grinning evilly at the Turtles, Leon, and Renet. In his hand he still clutched Peter Laird. His eyes narrowed to slits, a piercing red glow emanating from beneath his eyelids. "You..." he seethed, "... I was not expecting you quite this early in this game." The man harrumphed, then hurled Peter Laird across the room to crash against a stone fireplace. He wasn't moving. "Actually... once my business was done here, I wasn't expecting to see you ever again," he spoke to the Turtles. Strangely, however, he gave a wink to Leon alone.

The Turtles readied their weapons. Raphael faced the man dead-on, his muscles coiling as if he was ready to pounce on him where he stood. "I don't think we've been introduced, shithead."

"Spirit," the man said with a sardonic smile, "how I do appreciate spirit. The name is Null... and while I may not have met any of y—"

Raphael toppled over in sudden pain, his body suddenly twisting and contorting. When he stood back to his feet, he was no longer himself but...

"Raphael..." Renet sighed, staring at the Turtle. By the letter on his belt and general look, he looked enough like the Raphael of Dimension D, the older version of which she'd met—briefly—on the beach prior to the Shogun encounter.

This new Raphael stood aghast at the presence of the business-suited man that had attacked and nearly killed Peter Laird. "You... _you!" _

Null's grin widened. "Ah, a familiar face." He also turned to Leon. "And you... we meet again! Will the mysteries of the universe never cease..."

Leon furrowed his brow at the horned man. "I don't know you, demon."

"This... this thing... he's a butcher," Raphael shouted to his companions. "He... he's responsible for a lot of deaths, man. He killed the Mutanimals, for one... a lot of friends, allies..."

Null acted on mock-grief, raising a hand to his mouth. "Guilty as charged. Now what do you intend to do about it, freak?" The devilish man gave a snort. "You can't even keep yourself together, let alone hope to take on one such as I."

No more talking. Raphael rushed Null head-on, both sai drawn and ready.

_"Ahhh!"_ Raphael yelled, bringing both sai down in a calculated swooping attack motion. _"Oomph!"_

Null extended one hand and both sai bounced off of it, Raphael's reversal of momentum sending him careening back to his brothers. "Ho-ho! You'll have to do better than that, freaks! A _lot_ better!"

"Try this!" Venus shouted at the madman. While Null stared enamored at her, she raised both arms, _two kai_ mi balls quickly becoming charged with her shinobi energies, and hurled both at him.

"What is... _urkh!"_ The two balls exploded against Null's neck and chest with the force of a shotgun spread. Thrown back, Null slammed against the wall near where Laird was resting unconscious and fought to regain his composure. "That, young lady..." he spoke between huffs, "... was most definitely _not_ called for!"

"Get'im, guys!" Leon shouted, jabbing his human finger at Null.

Before the Turtles could rush Null, however, an energy barrier erupted in front of him. An almost invisible line of energy crackled forth, instantly dividing the living room into two, Null on one side with Laird and the Turtles and Renet on the other.

Null gave his sports jacket a slight tug, straightening it. His tie was tattered now, nearly obliterated by Venus' onslaught. "Hmf," he grunted at the Turtles, regarding them with a steady ominous gaze. "I'll give you a respite... just for now. Use it well..." Null casually snapped a finger and vanished from sight, "... and just remember, there's more than one way to skin a cat... or a Turtle. _Ta-ta_ for now."

With his disappearance, the force field vanished as well.

The Turtles rushed forward, Renet and Venus running to Peter Laird's side. Renet reached to touch his neck.

Leon furrowed his brow, kneeling beside the two women. "Is he...?"

Renet gave a sigh. "He'll be all right... but he might wake up with the mother of all headaches."

"Thank... goodness?" Leon spoke, but the words began to catch in his throat. His seventeen year-old human body began to shimmer and glow, a searing pain growing from his sternum and spreading to his head. He screamed out loud, toppling to the floor.

A flash of blinding light made each of the Turtles, Renet as well, raise a hand to shield their vision from the awesome glow of the light. When at last the light dissipated from sight Leon lay on the floor unconscious...

... and Leonardo was kneeling next to him, back in his Turtle body.

Renet and Venus perked up.

"Leo!" Venus exclaimed happily as she ran to him.

"When we stopped Null from killing Laird here..." Renet began, it just beginning to make sense to her now, "... that must have stopped what's causing the mutagen to break down in your bloodstreams... and—"

"Brought me back." Leonardo took a deep breath and exhaled. He held his right hand out in front of him, opened and closed his hand, and dropped it to his side. He held out his left hand... but there was no hand, just a metal cap, the same way it had been the moment before he had been thrown into the body of Leon six years previous, right after the Shogun had perished. He looked the same as his brothers had earlier—Michaelangelo was still the Mike from Dimension C, Donatello was still the Don from Dimension B, and Raphael was still the Raph from Dimension D at the moment—only sixteen years younger.

"It's good to be back..." Leo said, his voice carrying an almost icy tone, "... and it's good to be green."

As his brothers and Venus drew closer he startled them by unleashing the blade within his left capped stump, the wakizashi-length blade releasing from it with a loud _shikt._

Leonardo wasn't smiling. "If we can hunt this son of a bitch, let's hunt this sick son of a bitch," he spoke. If there was a time to start acting like a leader, that time had come. "It's time to stop screwing around."


	6. Chapter 5 : Turtles Count it Off!

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter Five  
TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!**

_  
**"**_**_Without change, something sleeps inside us, and seldom  
awakens. The sleeper must awaken__."_  
**- Frank Herbert

**Earth (Dimension Null); Northampton, MA, July 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

"So, like, what's the plan, Leo?" Michaelangelo asked.

Leonardo took a long moment to consider that and gather himself. He thought for a few moments then turned his gaze to rest on the young Mistress of Time, still standing semi-shocked that Leonardo was himself again. "Renet can take us through the rift just like she has in the past when I visited your world. You can follow the dimensional rifts Null goes through... right?"

Renet gave a dutiful nod. "Of course I can, Leo. But there's just one problem. My powers are, like, believe it or not... very weak at this moment. I've been away from the Palisade for far too long... expending more chronal power than I would've otherwise cared to. I've been trying to conserve myself for quite some time now, but it just hasn't really been working out that way."

"That explains why you wanted us to take a plane all the way here from the west coast," Venus spoke.

Leo placed his only hand on Renet's shoulder. "Don't worry, I promise we won't let anything happen to you. You've been our friend for a long time and I trust you."

Renet felt tears welling as she nodded with a smile. "Y-you're right, Leo. You're absolutely right."

Leo squeezed Renet's shoulder. "Like a sister to us, Renet. From the first time we met... like a sister." Holding her gaze just a moment longer he turned to the others, all eagerly awaiting what he might say next. "Let's go, everyone."

Mike gave a mock-cough. "All right, but hey, what about Leon and Peter Laird over there?" he asked.

"Yeah... I think they should be fine as soon as they awaken," Don replied. "Besides, I bet it'll be a real thrill for Leon to wake up after that whole ordeal and get to meet his idol!"

Leo nodded. "You might be surprised."

"Oh yea, that's a radical notion!" Mike said. _Hoping he doesn't get his sorry ass kicked out by the cops first,_ he added mentally as he was swept into the rift along with the others.

Minutes after the Turtles and Renet had left, Leon, left to his own facilities now, slowly stirred to consciousness. As the dizzying revelation of what had just happened to him—as well as the life he had been living the last six years—caught up to him all at once.

_He used me... he _used _me! My life has been a lie!_

Gritting his teeth at this, intense, boiling anger quickly spread across Leon's face. Holding himself halfway off the floor with one arm, he began pounding at the floor again and again with his free hand until it hurt too badly to continue.

_Damn the Ninja Turtles... damn Leonardo... damn them all to hell!_

The dream was over. It was time to wake up.

* * *

**CGI/Former Live-Action Earth (Dimension B); New York City, NY, June 25TH, 2007 A.D.**

As the wave of temporal particles washed over them, Renet noticed Don and Mike's bandannas were red once again. The rest of their garments went back to their original style as well. They had reverted back to their Dimension A selves. "Guys, you're back!" Though as she passed her glance over Raphael, she noted that he was still the Dimension D version of Raphael.

"We were never actually gone, Renet," Donatello stated. "Well, I mean, in a way we were with you. We could see and hear everything through their eyes. Though it was all rather distorted and there are certain moments I couldn't recall."

"Yea, me neither. It was sort of like that movie... what was it... yeah, _Being John Malkovich,_ this movie where people would go through that doorway and find themselves in his head," Michaelangelo added.

"Sorry, but I never saw that movie," Renet solemnly admitted. "Though I was quite aware of the plot, so I understand. Leonardo, how you might have felt when—oh my gosh!"

"What?" a new, higher-pitched voice came from his mouth. The Turtle was now sporting the classic blue threads and a belt with the letter "L" on it with almost suspender-like straps over his plastron and carapace.

"Wow, this is getting kinda weird!" Mikey said as he stared down the Leo from Dimension D.

"You're telling me, dude!" Raphael spoke, happy to see one of his brothers from his world joining him. "Long time no see, Leo!"

"So wait, we're back to our ordinary selves and both our brothers have been switched with their counterparts from that other comic series?" Michelangelo griped. "This is schizoid..."

"It would seem so. I was so certain that after preventing Laird's death at the hands of Null, things would finally go back to normal..." Renet spoke in a rather disappointed matter.

"I guess that's just a cake dream at this point!" Donatello replied. "You guys probably don't even recognize me, do you?" he spoke to Leo and Raph. "I was the cyborg Turtle who visited your world back in... oh, '93 I believe. Jerusalem...?"

"Of course, you're Donatello! And, you're right, I really don't recognize you," Dimension D Leonardo spoke. "What exactly is going on here?"

"It's kind of a long story, but suffice it to say an evil demon—or whatever he is—from your dimension known as Null managed to evade the destruction of your dimension and escape to others," Renet explained.

"Null?"

"Damn straight it was Null!" Raph spat. "That bastard tried to annihilate us completely earlier!"

"Yes, but now he has escaped into this dimension which was formerly the home of Venus DeMilo," Renet spoke as she patted the female Turtle on the back.

"You're not just whistling Dixie Cups, babe!" Mike spoke as he pointed over the horizon where the dimension's native Turtles were bouncing from rooftop to rooftop.

The Turtles and their female companions stood back as Dimension B's native Turtles landed on the opposite edge of the building. They all stood together in single file. Gone were the strange wrestler-esque masks and white taped arms from before. They once again had brown arm and kneepads with non-lettered belt buckles as their Dimension A counterparts with the multi-colored headbands from all the other dimensions. "Is this what you were intending to show us, Don?" B-Leo asked.

"Who the hell are these guys?" Dimension B Raph asked. The Turtle with plastron breasts seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place who it was.

"It's Venus and Renet with those other Turtles!" B-Don spoke. His brothers all looked at him curiously with no idea what he was talking about.

The orange masked Mikey made a small chuckle as he poked his brother's shoulder. "I could've used her during my Cowabunga Carl racket!" he said with a chuckle.

Dimension A-Don quickly walked up to his own counterpart. "You remember? You remember meeting Peter Laird and saving him from the hands of that demon right before we left his world?"

"Yeah, of course! I was right there with Venus and Renet when we stopped Null from murdering Peter Laird! Next thing I know, I'm back here in this reconstituted version of my homeworld with my brothers! I guess coming here instantly separated us back into two separate counterparts," the purple-bandanna wearing Donatello answered. "Kinda hurts to think, what with all the temporal distortion going on here!" he said, rubbing his forehead. "I remember something about... the name Max Winters... monsters... time running out... stone soldiers..."

"Stone soldiers? Oh no, don't tell me General Traag exists in this dimension!" the Dimension D Leonardo said.

"I don't think that's who these Turtles are talking about, Leo, Especially considering Krang never existed in this reality! Hopefully once that new CGI movie is finally made, this dimension will return to its proper stability..." Renet spoke.

Venus was about to interject when she felt an odd sensation pulsating through her. She bent over in agony and looked at her hand which now was... furry. The fox woman Ninjara from Dimension D stood between her ex-boyfriend and his brother from the destroyed dimension.

"What the hell just happened?" Dimension A-Mike shouted.

"There was a strange fluctuation in the Entropy that waits for all of existence just beyond the End of Time," Renet explained. "Apparently Dimension D has been attempting to reconstitute itself... and as a result she somehow managed to replace Venus."

"Hey... um, Ninjara, how've you been?" D-Raph asked in a coy tone.

"I thought we weren't talking to one another, _Raphael!"_ she yelled.

"Well, excuse me for being friendly! Dammit, why do I even _bother_ sometimes?"

"_Yo! _Not meaning to be rude and interrupt your bitching, but our entire existence's fate is still in the hands of that fucking psycho demon!" Dimension A-Mike shouted angrily to them.

Donatello sighed as he asked his Dimension B counterpart, "You didn't happen to see him when you returned here, did you?"

"Yes, actually. He was here just before you showed up. He took off his shirt and grew these huge wings just as he opened up another transdimensional rift in the sky overhead. That's when I noticed you guys rematerializing."

"Renet, do you think you can get a fix on where that jackass went next?"

"I already have, Donatello! He's escaped into... Dimension E! The very world Shogun set out to create as a perfected version of all your various timelines and realities, which in the real world is now the cartoon series!"

"Figures he'd want to go there!" Michaelangelo muttered. "You dudes take it easy, okay?" he spoke, waving to the four Dimension B Turtles.

"I _really_ hope this is this is the last damned time I have to do this!" the blonde Timestress winced painfully as she raised her Sceptre into the air and reopened the rift in the sky which began to pull her, Don, and Mike into it, followed by Leo, Raph, and Ninjara.

* * *

**4Kids Animated Earth (Dimension E); Northampton, MA, October 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

It was a beautiful evening in the wilderness as Splinter, the gray-haired mutant rat was giving his four reptilian sons a lecture on being one with nature. "My sons, I brought you with me on this sabbatical for good reason. For far too long your minds have been prone to the devices of civilization here and elseworlds, causing you to lose touch with your roots." The old rat turned his gaze to one of his pupils. "For instance, Donatello, you have been extremely preoccupied with your inventions. Not to mention the great influence our friends the Utroms have had on you with their advances in technology."

Michelangelo began to laugh at his brother for being singled out just as their wise sensei whapped him on the arm.

"You, Michelangelo, have spent the better part of a decade reading comic books, thriving on the lives of imagined characters! Of course as we've seen in the last few years, some of these heroes really do exist in our world. But I digress. Raphael, you have created quite a bond the last three years or so with Casey Jones. At first I was concerned for your safety because of his wild nature, but now that I see he and Miss O'Neil are starting to settle down, he has wizened and become more than just a biking partner for you. He is your surrogate brother, as it were."

Raph made a grin as he looked towards his brother Leo. _So what's Sensei have to say about old Teacher's Pet over here?_

Before the wise sensei could continue with the lesson, there was a rift in the sky and out popped a strange man in business attire with horns on its heads, wings sprouting out of his back, and a smoking cigar in the corner of his mouth.

"Greetings, Turtles!" the demonic-looking man bellowed down at the Turtles. Flapping his bat-like wings, he hovered slowly down to earth, retracting his wings, which vanished as he touched down.

"What the shell is that?" Raph asked.

"It looks like an Avien!" Don responded.

"Yea right, except you forgot that Aviens have those feathered wings, not bat wings!" Mike added.

"Whatever it is, get your weapons ready!" Leo shouted, drawing out his swords.

Don, Raph and Mike followed him in suit just as Splinter took out his walking stick. "My sons, you must be very careful! We do not know if this... thing means us direct harm."

"Oh, I can answer that for you, _Splinter!"_ the horned man spoke loudly.

"How did that guy—" Mike tried to speak, but could barely continue to speak, as if the very sight of the creature caused him to freeze up in fear.

"How do I know his name? I know all of your names... Mikey! I also know the names of those pathetic Mutanimals I had killed!"

"Mutanimals...?" Don asked, confused.

"Oh, how right you, the Mutanimals don't exist here... bully for you but what a bloody pity! I was hoping I might get the chance to kill them all over again and screw around with Mondo's girlfriend some more!" A malicious grin spread infectiously across his lips as he savored a puff from his cigar. "I didn't even get the chance to strip that sullen bitch fully naked so that I could—"

"All right, that does it you fowl-mouthed pervert! Just what the shell do you want?!" Raphael shouted angrily as he lunged at the creature. "What are you, another one of _Bishop'_s freak experiments sent here to go ballistic on us or something?"

"Oh, I'm not one of that stupid _Men In Black_ wannabe's friends! I come from a whole other time and place that you can't even begin to fathom! A place where I nearly destroyed the world with the help of an enlightened alien race known as the Malignoids... the only ones who stood in our way were you _goddamned freaks_ and all your pathetic friends! But now that world has been wiped clean out of existence, leaving me without the chance to exact my revenge on you—or should I say your _counterparts_—from there."

"Uh, Don, do you have any idea what that dude just said?"

"I haven't the foggiest at this point, Mikey!" he said. _Alternate realities? That sounds almost like something out of that whole ordeal the Ultimate Draco creature put us through!_

"Nevertheless, I'm growing tired of telling you fools my life story! I will be leaving now, and taking your sensei with me!" At that, the demonic man's great wings again sprouted from his back. Bounding and gliding straight forward, in one fell swoop he grabbed Splinter by the collar of his kimono and took flight.

"Master Splinter, _nooo!"_ Leonardo screamed angrily after him.

The rat tried desperately to tear himself free of the demon's iron grip, but it was to no avail. "I will _not_ allow you to taunt my sons and I like this, foul beast!"

"Oh, believe me, rodent," the demon said as he held Splinter by the arms and looked him in the eye. "I will do far worse to you than that villain Shredder could ever hope to achieve."

That very moment, Splinter saw the most frightening vision he could ever possibly imagine... the demon's trance showed Splinter the form of his Master Yoshi on fire, as if the very fires of Hell itself were consuming him. Splinter could barely stand it as he cried out in terror and fainted.

"Come on, we have to follow him!" Leonardo ordered his brothers as they ran as fast as they possibly could.

"It sure would be nice to have those jet packs again!" Mike complained.

Just then, another warp opened up, and out fell five green figures.

Five... somewhat familiar-looking green figures.

"Aw great! We don't have _freakin' time for this!"_

"Whoa, chill out a second, Raph!" Donatello told his brother. "These guys look like they've been hurt."

"Not only that, they look like us!" Leo added as the Turtle in blue limb bands and a belt buckle with the letter "L" on it arose. "Hey, are you... all right?"

"I think so? Where am I, and how did I get here?" Dimension C-Leonardo asked.

"Search me, Leonardo!" Dimension-C Donny explained as he helped C-Raphael to his feet.

"Oh man, my head feels like a ton of bricks just upped and fell on it!"

"You're gonna feel even worse if you don't tell me what the shell is going on around here!" E-Raph growled.

"Whoa, chill out, dude! I can explain everything!" C-Mike shouted as he assisted Venus, who had reverted back to herself after they had left Dimension B.

"There has been an anomaly in the fabric of space-time and all existence will be moot unless—"

"Holy _shell, _dude!" E-Mikey shouted, interrupting Venus' train of thought. "You're a friggin' _chick Turtle! _Oh my _god!_ Y-you've got boo—_ow!"_

E-Raph promptly smacked his brother in the back of the head for the outburst.

"What kind of anomaly are you talking about, lady?" C-Don asked.

"Look, dudes, I really don't know how to explain all this to you, but we're all in some serioso grave danger unless we defeat this Null weirdo!" C-Michaelangelo answered.

"Um, he wouldn't happen to be a big ugly bald guy with horns on his head and wings on his back, would he?" E-Don asked quizzically.

"Oh yea, that's him all right, dude!"

"He's got Master Splinter... our Master Splinter!" E-Leo said in distress. "We _have to go after him!"_

"Not to worry, Leonardo of this dimension. I know Renet can help us find—" Venus turned to her friend, only to realize there was no sign of the Timestress. Not a trace. "Where is she?"

"Did you just say Renet...?" E-Raphael asked. "We once met a girl named Renet who had this powerful Time Sceptre."

"Which fell into the hands of one of our enemies! He used it to send us all across time and space!" E-Leo said, coldly, anger seething through his teeth.

"Lets just say it wasn't a pleasant experience," E-Mike replied. "Well, it kind of was for me after getting to see what it would be like if we all had super powers!"

"Uh, right," C-Mike said, eyeing his own counterpart. _Geez, no wonder Raphael always thinks I'm obnoxious!_

"Hey, what's this thing?" C-Raph asked as he picked up a fancy looking pole with an hourglass attached on the top. There was a note written on a piece of paper that had been taped to the pole.

"That is the Sceptre... it must've fallen from Renet's hands," Venus replied matter-of-factly. "She must have sent it along with us and gone back to the 79TH Level of Null-Time..." And that was being optimistic, Venus knew.

"Why would she do that?" C-Don asked.

Venus took the Sceptre from the rather goofy-looking Raphael and looked over the note. "Her powers are weakening..." she paraphrased. "She is sorry. It says on the note to use the scepter only as a means of communicating with her for the time being..."

"So we're here on our own?! What a load'a crud!!!"

"Hold it, Raph! That guy may be holding all the cards at this point, but we now out-number him nearly ten to one!" E-Leo spoke. "Lets all head back to the farmhouse and get the Battle Shell! We'll need it if we want to stop this guy."

"The Battle Shell?" all four Dimension C Turtles asked curiously.

"Uh, you'll see it when we get there," E-Don replied.

During the twenty minute-long walk back, Venus and C-Michaelangelo both explained to his brothers and their Dimension E counterparts the basic idea of what was going on—that they had been with other incarnations of the Turtles in a world where they were basically fictional characters whose very existence relied heavily on the fanbase that adored them... as well as the creators themselves who were responsible for seeing to it that they remained active in the media. Mike also reminded his brothers of the whole incident with the one-armed Leonardo from Dimension A whose transcendence into and out of a young fan's body was thought to be the catalyst of saving all existence of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"Wait, did you say that in another world, we're, like, all comic book characters and stuff? That is _sooo_ cool!" The native dimension's Mike was almost overcome with giddiness over the idea.

"Not exactly, dude. None of us here are the... um, comic book Turtles," C-Mike explained to his counterpart, remembering well what he had seen in the Words and Pictures Museum. "My bros and I were from the original cartoon done in the late 1980s and were canned in the mid-'90s. You dudes are basically the current animated series airing in the twenty-first century."

"That would explain the dissimilarities with appearance and everything," E-Don added.

"Yea, but what about this Venus character? Don't tell me we got our own version of her here," E-Raph muttered. "Not that it would be a bad thing..."

"Definitely not, Raph! In the real world Kevin Eastman was more or less in charge of a television show which I now understand was the basis of my dimension," Venus explained, lowering her head. She kept her emotions hidden, but there was no mistaking the sadness in her voice. "It only lasted a year though. That was some three years before he relinquished his rights to co-creator Peter Laird, the man responsible for giving your world its life. Apparently, Laird was none too fond of my existence, and he made sure that I be wiped out of my dimension's timeline when they release the next movie in early 2007..." For the first time since their visit to the real world, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by how grave her situation was. Even if she could manage to save these Turtles from Null's destruction, as far as she knew from her transdimensional adventure so far, her fate would be sealed within less than a year.

"Eastman and Laird...?" E-Leonardo asked curiously.

"That's the name of the street corner in New York our lair is under!" E-Don remarked. They all seemed to share the realization that it was no mere coincidence. "So, um, Donatello, do you like to make gadgets?" he proceeded to ask his Dimension C counterpart.

"As a matter of fact, yeah. Though it seems I don't have any on me except for this Turtle Communicator," C-Don answered, pulling a small shell shaped walkie-talkie out of his belt.

"Wow, that looks awfully low-tech compared to my Shell Cell!"

"Well it must be, considering our reality was done about sixteen years before yours!" C-Leonardo figured.

"Okay guys, we're here." E-Leo pointed towards the quaint-looking farmhouse just past the clearing of the woods.

"Whoa, awesome pad you got!" C-Michaelangelo exclaimed.

"Well, it belongs to a good friend of ours," E-Raph replied. "Yo, April! Casey Jones! Get your butts out here! We got something major freaky to show you!" he yelled as he ran to the front door where a young redhead and a tall black-haired man, both in their twenties sat.

"Did _I_—I mean, did he just call that guy _Casey?"_ C-Raphael asked. _Whoever this guy is, he can't be anymore of a goofball than the Casey Jones we knew in our world!_ He added mentally.

The two humans stood in shock to see their friends accompanied by what looked like five other Turtles.

"Um, is this something you've been keeping from us?" the man asked.

"Not exactly, Casey," E-Leo answered.

"But we all need each other's help in a big way!" E-Mikey boasted.

"Didn't Master Splinter come back with you guys?" asked the redhead.

"No, April. He was kidnapped by this winged demon these other Turtles are after," E-Don mentioned. "Apparently those four are _us_ from a different dimension of sorts. Their Michaelangelo told us he and the girl Turtle know who the demon is and why he's after us!"

"I'd sure like to come with you guys and help kick some butt!" Casey said, throwing his fists in the air.

"I'm sure you could if you didn't invite your mother and Cousin Sid over for dinner three hours ago!" April said with a sigh. "Listen, we'll be right here if you guys need anything! Just call us on the kitchen phone. I'll go get you the number."

E-Don and Mike escorted both their counterparts and C-Raphael to the driveway where a giant green tanker truck stood.

"Holy guacamole, dudes!"

"That thing's gotta be like twice the size of the Turtle Van!" Raph spoke.

"Yea, and they painted the whole thing _green!_ The van was like 85% yellow!" Don added.

Back inside, E-Leo and Raph were talking with Casey as Venus and C-Leo were given the piece of paper by April. "You guys be careful out there, all right?"

"Don't worry, April. We'll be just fine!" Leonardo said, feeling somewhat strange speaking to someone who in some ways looked just like the April from his reality, but seemed so incredibly different. Of course, this wasn't the best time to delve into questions.

April and Casey said their final farewell to the Turtles as they loaded up into the Battle Shell. "Give my best to your mom, Casey!" E-Leo yelled out, winking to his friend.

"Aw, get outta here you knuckleheads!"

"Who's calling who _knucklehead_?" E-Raph's voice yelled from the driver's seat of the Battle Shell as he revved the motor and took off. He howled with excitement as he sped down the road, smirking at his own counterpart sitting next to him in the passenger seat. He couldn't get over the dopey look on the other Raphael's face. "Hey pal, you don't drive motorcycles ever, do you?"

"Who, me? _Nah!_ I'm really more of a jokester! Though apparently I once drove a cab when I had my mind switched with this guy named Oscar. It's a pretty funny story, really!" C-Raph said with a chuckle.

"Ohhh-kay." E- Raph glared at his counterpart, not wanting to delve into any further questioning. He already knew more than enough from that small moment of interaction. "Yo Don, you want to help me get some directions here or what?"

"Just a second, Raph! My counterpart here is helping me fuse the Sceptre with our tracking equipment. We should be able to locate Null's chronal energy powers."

"Thank you for clearing that with me before we hit the highway that leads into town!"

"Don't worry, Raphael. We'll get there in time!" E-Leo assured his brother.

Nearly an hour later, the Turtles found their way to the heart of Northampton. Venus and Dimension C's Michaelangelo were both in awe at the sights. In their minds, they thought back to what seemed like just seconds earlier when they and the various _comic book_ dimensions' Turtles were in the real world with Renet looking for Peter Laird. _I suppose Laird must give the workers at 4Kids a lot of info about Northampton's geography,_ Venus thought offhandedly to herself.

Raph parked the Battle Shell just alongside the parking lot to an abandoned warehouse with white walls.

"You sure this is the place, Donatello?" C-Leonardo asked.

"According to my counterpart's findings, this should be it. In fact, now I'm purely positive about it! Look at the Sceptre," he said as he held it up in his hands. The hourglass with the Sacred Sands of Time began to glow an eerie shade of yellow.

"_Eeew!_ It looks like dried up mayonnaise!" E-Mike whined.

"It must be the place. The building's architecture is similar to that of the Words and Pictures Museum," Venus spoke.

"For sure, I'd recognize that archway anywhere!" C-Mike added.

Just as they exited the truck and shut the doors, a painful sensation overtook Venus. "_Gah!_ Oh no, not again! _Aughk!"_ All eight Ninja Turtles stood back in shock as Venus suddenly grew a long flock of brown hair, on her head and her shell disappeared while an elongated green tail sprouted out of her tailbone.

"What the shell's going on with her?" E-Mike asked.

"I don't know, but she seems to have taken on the form of... a salamander," E-Don replied.

"Wait a second, we _know_ that salamander!" C-Leonardo spoke. "Raphael, isn't she your friend from that cruise you took with April before?"

Raphael's features lit up excitedly. "Y-yeah, she is! It's Mona Lisa!"

"R-Raphael?" the female mutant asked meekly. "What's going on? H-how did I get here?"

"It's kind of a long story, ML. But we really don't have time for it right now!"

"Its better that you don't know what's going on, anyway," E-Mike added, scratching his head. "Trust me, it's enough to make a dude's head explode!"

"I know just what you mean, man!" C-Mike remarked.

"I guess for now it would be best if your brother lead the way in," E-Leo suggested to his counterpart. "Donny and I can watch your backs while Raph and my Mike guard the front entrance."

"Agreed," C-Leo responded.

"Oh enough of this crud, already!" E-Raph spat, clearly in no state of mind to listen to Leo barking orders at him. He rammed his sai through the handles of the door and barged inward.

"_Raphael,_ you will stand down!" E-Leo ordered his brother.

"Man, this guy sure has some issues!" C-Raphael whispered to Mona Lisa as they followed his brothers inside the building.

"I'm not surprised, Raphael. I mean when we first met, you seemed somewhat aloof, but in a more Matthew Perry sort of style. This guy's more like _Luke_ Perry!"

"I'm sorry but could you two please keep it down?" E-Don asked as kindly as he possibly could. "It's hard to get a fix on any reading with—" Before he could even finish his sentence, the Sceptre's sands began to erupt in a torrent of light that lit up the entire building. "Unbelievable!"

"What does it mean, though?" E-Leo asked.

"It means, fledglings, you are all _doomed!"_ Null's voice boomed through the building.

"Okay, this guy is _really_ starting to get under my shell!" E-Raph snarled.

"Yea, I can see that!" Mike chuckled just as his brother gave him the look.

"I'm through toying with you freakish shellbacks and your rodent senseis!" the foul demon spoke as he emerged into the light. He still had Splinter of Dimension E within his grasp. "It's time I finally ended your wretched existence once and for all!"

"_No!"_ E-Leo screamed as he ran in. "I won't let you destroy _anyone, _Null! _I won't let you dishonor us!"_ the Turtle howled as he plunged his sword into the devilish man's left shoulder.

Null cried out in pain as he threw Splinter to the ground and clamped at his wound. "Oh, yes, you've had it you... you fucking _freak!"_ he seethed. Utilizing what little strength he had leftover, he erected the same force field from before.

"Master Splinter, are you all right?" E-Don asked as he helped the rat to his feet.

"I am fine, my son. I see you had some—ahem—help."

"Yea, it's a pretty long story," E-Mike spoke.

"Which we really don't have any time for, dudes!" C-Mike added.

"Michaelangelo is right. You guys better beat it!" C-Don suggested to the dimension's native Turtles and their sensei.

"But what about all of you?" E-Raph asked.

"Whatever becomes of us shouldn't matter. Our dimension died out long ago... therefore we don't belong here," C-Leonardo told them.

"Right, but neither does that creep! Let's take him, Turtles!" C-Raphael shouted, drawing out his twin sai.

"What a bunch of fools you are, the lot of you... so full of yourselves you could choke on it!" Null said, laughing maniacally as he wavered the force field. The bloody gash on his shoulder had healed itself enough to be no more than a mere paper cut. "I could have taken you all out with one fatal blow... but now that you've shooed away your more contemporary likenesses, I see now that the only way to most effectively destroy you is in the past... the _original_ past!" With that, to a flurry mottling of fluorescent hues and ultraviolet, almost neon lights, Null opened the transdimensional rift once again with a snap of his fingers.

"Oh man, this doesn't bode well, dudes!" Michaelangelo noted. "Like, what do we do now?"

"Search us, Mikey! I'm still having a hard time understanding how we could even have replaced our Dimension A selves!" Raphael replied.

"Dimension A? Oh no! I think I know where Null is heading!" Donatello said as he took out the Sceptre. Before he could even figure out how to use it to contact Renet, another wave of temporal energy materialized, sweeping over the Turtles and Mona Lisa.

As the energy wavered, the Turtles took notice at themselves and at one another. "Guys, your bandannas are turning red!" Mona Lisa spoke in shock.


	7. Chapter 6 : Kingdom Come

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Chapter Six  
KINGDOM COME**

_  
**"**_**_Evil draws men together__."_**  
- Aristotle

**Earth (Dimension A); New York City, NY, May 30TH, 1972 A.D.**

Null appeared, to a transdimensional flashing of light, into in one of Manhattan's dankest back alleys. It was not, however, just any alley nor just any time.

"1972..." Stepping out of the alley and onto the sidewalk, he took a deep breath of the pungent New York morning air. "Ah yes, a _good_ year..." Null made a coughing sound, wrinkling his nose a bit, "but perhaps not a _fine_ year!" Straightening his black sports jacket with a quick tug, he proceeded to cross the street. Cars screeched to a halt mere feet away from him as he casually made his way across.

"Yo, asshole, get outta the road!" a disgruntled taxi cab driver shouted at Null with a thick Jersey accent. "Yeah, you bald weirdo, I'm talkin' to _you!"_

Null shook his head and gave a wistful sigh. Not even regarding the driver with a look of acknowledgement, he snapped his finger... and the taxi cab instantly burst into flames, glass and debris thrown about as the vehicle leapt nearly five feet into the air as its gas tank was ruptured. "Everyone's a critic..."

A normal enough pet shop was located directly across the street. Taking his time, Null walked up to the door, threw it open, and sauntered into the store.

An assortment of caged and aquariumed pets and pet care products and toys littered the walls of the relatively small shop. Kittens, puppies, and fish seemed to be the main commodity... with a couple terrariums worth of reptiles on display subtly near the back.

A middle-aged lady was near the fish tanks, currently dispensing some fish food to each one. A mildly obese middle-aged man, probably her boss, attended the counter, twisting a corner of his scraggly beard as he watched Null enter his store. "Can I help ya, mister?" he asked.

Null gave a short laugh. He took brisk, methodical paces toward the counter, a pause between each one. "Oh, absolutely... I believe you can be of the _utmost_ help to me today." He was now in the man's face. "You see... I have this problem..."

"Tell me about it, mister."

"You see... I heard a rumor that the turtles you sell in your pet shop—now this is just a rumor—these turtles... they have a tendency to mutate into these... man-like abominations."

The bearded man started twisting his beard faster. His employee started shooting nervous glances at Null, more and more wary of this strange new customer. "Yeah? I hear lotsa weird shit, too... what's a guy to do?"

"Well, sir, if you're asking me..." Null smiled wickedly, "... he can _die!" _Lunging over the counter, in one violent motion Null punched a clenched fist through the man's stomach. Leaving it there, just a moment as he held the man's dying gaze, he pulled it back out and let the man collapse over the counter. Flicking his wrist in a disgusted manner, the blood and gore coating Null's fist and sleeve magically vanished.

The man's employee dropped her bag of fish food, gave a bone-numbing shriek, and ran out the door as Null only chuckled.

"You know... I didn't really need to come here," Null spoke. "Everything I need to accomplish I could just as easily do from the End of Time... but I thought this a much more poignant solution, I hope you agree." Staring about the store, his gaze locked onto a terrarium containing four baby turtles. He held his gaze there, and with every passing moment the hate welled and grew within him. "I hate you, Turtles..." Null spoke, his voice different now, lower, no trace of his usual cockiness, "... so much you have robbed from me." His eyes flashed ominously, his pupils becoming glowing red embers of hatred. "Now I will rob from _you, _Turtles... I will rob from you your _very existence! _**Burn!"**

His eyes now fiery red, Null raised both arms into the air and then back down again. To that, plumes of fire sprouted from almost random locations within the pet shop. Papers, bags, and the walls themselves quickly caught on fire, the fire itself quickly growing to a blaze.

The entire store on fire around his feet, Null laughed thunderously. Savoring the spectacle for a moment, he turned and exited out the front door. "Ta-ta for now, Turtles..."

"You stop right there, motherfucker!" a familiar voice came.

Null turned his gaze to see the four Ninja Turtles with a strange salamander-like female and Renet. Wisps of energy freshly crackled off of their bodies, the six of them apparently just having arrived. They had all assumed battle stances, ready to engage Null at a moment's notice... but something was clearly the matter. Their postures were wavering, pain playing out across their faces... time was catching up with them already, same as it had before they had stopped Null from killing Peter Laird.

There would be no stopping it this time.

"Game's up, Null!" Renet shouted. "End this, _now!"_

"A day late, Turtles," Null said, harrumphing, "and a buck short!" Snapping his finger, Null was vanished back into the transdimensional timestream.

Null gone, the Turtles, Mona Lisa, and Renet began receiving stares, shouts, and jeers from the morning New York City bustle. Exchanging a glance, they looked to the burning pet shop—beyond the point of salvation now—and knew what that meant.

Leonardo sighed. "We have failed..."

Raphael gritted his teeth, pushing back the pain coming from his chest. "That rat bastard son of a bitch..."

"All we can hope now is that... fate... allows us enough time... for our _vengeance_... before we fade away." Leonardo turned solemnly to Renet. "Will you take us to him one last time, Renet?"

Without a word, Renet gave a solemn nod and, with a wave of her Sacred Sands of Time Sceptre, they were off.

After they were gone a young boy, perhaps no older than fifteen, and his father stood on the corner, watching the flames rip through the pet store. The boy began to cry to his father, "Y-you promised me, Dad... you promised! I'll never get those turtles now..."

The spectacled man held his son, patting him on the head. "I know, Chet, and I'm sorry..." The man sighed in sorrow. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to be..."

* * *

**The End of Time (Dimension Null); July 25TH, 3689 A.D.**

Dropping from the transdimensional vortex Renet had created for them, the Turtles—Mona Lisa was gone now, replaced again by Venus—fell to their knees as they arrived at the End of Time. The pain was nearly insurmountable now, wracking their bodies to a degree such that they could barely even move.

Renet looked at the Turtles and paused. She hadn't much chronal energy left either in herself or her Sceptre—in fact she might be lucky if she even had enough to get home herself—but she felt she had no choice but to expend a bit of it now.

"Here, you guys..." she spoke, beginning to wave her Sceptre at the five of them. Blue tendrils of energies seemed to waft from the Sceptre to coalesce around their bodies, stagnating for a moment before vanishing without a trace. The Turtles looked about, startled, but apparently no longer in nearly as much pain. "It's a null-time field... I-I've just bought you guys some time."

Leonardo rose to his feet, nodding at Renet. "Thank you, Renet. I hope it is enough."

Deposited nearly at the summit of the now-familiar Mount Vesuvius—same location as their fateful final confrontation with the Shogun—they began to stealthily make their way up its craggy surface to the very top, crawling on all fours at some points.

When at last they reached the top, they found Null waiting for them on the dais, sitting expectantly on an invisible chair with his legs crossed. Seeing the first Turtle climb over the edge he gave a grunt, took one last puff of his cigar, and stubbed it out on his open hand. "You Turtles took your time," he remarked flippantly. "There's no need to try and sneak your way up... I was fully aware Renet would pull one of her cheats and give you another respite. It will be the last. Nevertheless, I know you are all on borrowed time and I know you're probably all just _dying_ to get this show on the road—and I promise you it won't be boring... so, shall we?" Null stood, brushing off his business attire. He waved to the Turtles and Renet as they all gathered at the top. "Come at me... I'm ready!"

His blade releasing itself from his stump cap, Leonardo raised his katana to the red sky above. "Get him!"

To that command, the five Turtles rushed forward across the rocky summit to meet their nemesis on equal ground. As they grew close, Null sprouted his bat wings, took a step back, and crossed his arms. Without further warning he abruptly split into five beings, about two meters between each one.

"Let's be sporting, shall we?" all five of the Nulls spoke in unison, almost as a choir. At once, all five of them raised their fists up high and thick, black spikes protruded from their hands near the knuckles.

The Turtles met the Nulls head-on, the enemy parrying the Turtles' weapons' blows with their knuckle spikes, exchanging blows of their own as well. The only sounds that could be heard on the mountaintop being the grunting of the Turtles and their opponents and the clash of their weapons, the battle raged on for several minutes, neither side gaining a clear advantage.

_"Enough!"_ all five Nulls shouted. Abruptly, the Turtles' now found themselves striking against a blue-white force field that they could not penetrate.

The Nulls floated back a few feet, then converged back into one being. Brushing off his now-slightly soiled sports jacket, Null flashed a look of anger at the Turtles—there was no pretense now.

"You really want to play?" Null thundered. "Oh, how quaint. I've got some old playmates of yours that can't _wait _to make your acquaintance!" He drew back a couple of paces, waving both hands in front of him as he beckoned aloud, "SuperShredder! Tokka! Rahzar! Bellybomb! Bloodsucker! Bebop! Rocksteady! Come to me now, your enemy awaits you! Malignoids, join me!"

To the Turtles' horror, dozens upon dozens of helmeted, insectoid creatures materialized from nothing and began to storm toward them, followed quickly by the beings Null had just mentioned, the collective lot of them raining down on the Turtles as a unified army. The eyes of these enemies were blank, vapid, perhaps suggesting they were mere shadows of the beings they actually represented. As the ensuing battle proved, however, they were shadows with _substance_ and they were firmly under the manipulation of Null.

As Renet looked on through teary eyes, the ill-prepared Turtles were getting pummeled and beaten down by the converging gauntlet of villains, and badly. It would only be a matter of time. Brandishing her Sceptre as a weapon, Renet prepared to join the grim battle to help her friends when a hand suddenly clapping down on her shoulder stopped her.

A purple-skinned woman with long, curled, brownish hair, and metallic jewelry about her body was standing behind her. "My name is Cherubae... and I'm here to help. Maybe even the odds."

Renet winced apprehensively at the stranger that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. "H-how can you help?"

Cherubae smiled. "For starters... I know seven beings, slain before their time, who have waited a long time for retribution..." Wasting no time, with a wave of her hand six shimmering beings—a tiny seventh riding atop one of the beings—slowly materialized around the Turtles. "Mondo Gecko! Man Ray! Leatherhead! Jagwar! Dreadmon! Wingnut! Screwloose! Your time is here—_your vengeance is now!"_

Needing nothing further to know than that, the seven shimmering, semi-transparent beings joined the fighting beside the five gracious Turtles, quickly tearing into the gathered forces of Null's summoning.

"Mutanimals?" Null shouted from high on his dais. _"Mutanimals?!_ I had my men kill you... _all of you! _What kind of trickery is this?"

The tiny Screwloose grinned happily. He poked the creature he rode, a bat-like creature with metal wings named Wingnut. "Another rock, boss?" Screwloose asked. As Wingnut nodded, the tiny creature handed him a large rock over his shoulder. As he leapt a few feet into the air, above the reach of the force field, Wingnut heaved the projectile all the way up to Null, whom it struck firmly on the forehead.

Null stumbled backwards from where he observed the battle, waving a fist in a menacing manner at the two Mutanimals.

The battle was won in several individual confrontations. Leonardo maneuvered past the defenses of the massive SuperShredder and drove his katana and arm-blade firmly into the chest of his quarry; Raphael ripped through two of the Malignoids with his sai, eagerly diving into the next batch; Michaelangelo fought toe-to-toe with the mutated snapping turtle Tokka, finally jumping on his back and strangling the oversized mutant with his nunchuks; Donatello, having little luck fighting the wolf-like Rahzar, broke his bo-staff in half over his own knee and, just as Rahzar hoisted Donatello up in the air, he drove one sharp, broken end of his bo into the creature's exposed neck; Venus held Bellybomb's attention, already having blinded him with her _kai mi _balls; Leatherhead tangled with Bloodsucker, ripping chunks of the mutant leech with his bare teeth; Man Ray and Mondo Gecko tangled with Bebop and Rocksteady, Man Ray overwhelming Bebop as he wrestled him to the ground and Mondo cracking Rocksteady over the face with his skateboard; Jagwar, Dreadmon, and Wingnut held the attention of the remaining Malignoids, seemingly fighting a never-ending battle as they tore through the insectoid horde three at a time.

"Blast it! Enough of this charade—_enough!" _Null shoved both of his arms forward.

As if an invisible wall had just been shoved forward with the force of a Mack Truck, the Turtles and their ghostly Mutanimal companions were thrown back several meters as abruptly as they were violently. At the same time, what was left of the villains he had summoned vanished. "You..." Null seethed, jabbing a finger at the fallen Leonardo as he walked down from his dais, "... you are the one I want."

Taking slow, measured steps to the Turtle, Null gave Leonardo a kick in the side. "Get up—get _up,_ you freak. Let's go."

Snarling at Null, Leo helped himself up with his own sword. "You want me... alone?"

"You heard me," the winged man spoke. "You're the one I want. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."

As some of the phantom-like Mutanimals had regained their composure, Raphael got to his feet and began to lead a subtle charge toward Null from the side.

"No interference, I'm afraid!" Null roared. "Though I will give you my sincerest assurances I'll be happy to join you just as soon as I'm done with this freak." The Turtles were blown back once again, this time as a gigantic dome-like force field was erected around the center of the dais at the mountain's summit, about fifteen meters by fifteen meters in its circumference.

Only Leonardo and Null were within the field; there was no hiding now, not for either of them.

Null grinned sardonically. "How I have waited and longed for this moment... you know, you and your friends were quite right. It is so much more fitting that we end it like this, rather than just by my tinkerings in your humble beginnings and erasing you. Yes, I think I'm going to have some real satisfaction when I'm standing over your dead body, yes indeed..."

Leonardo spit some blood near Null's shoes. "Don't count on it."

Null continued to pace, his gaze fixated on his hated enemy. "So how would you have me now... as I am, business formal..." Null waved a hand up and down over his sports jacket and tie, "... or would you have me dress for the occasion... perhaps in the guise of one of your own rogues galleries..." Light began to glimmer over the outline of Null's clothing and body.

Leo narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing..."

The light dispersed. Null now stood, about a foot taller, his bat-like wings seemingly increasing in their wingspan, and he was now dressed in the full bladed regalia of Oroku Saki "The Shredder," save for just the helmet.

"Better?" Null boomed, smiling broader than before as he gazed quickly over his handiwork. "I do like it... and all the better to end your insufferable existence."

Leonardo shook his head. "This... this hatred of yours toward us Turtles—towards _me_—the lengths you've gone to," he spoke. "This goes _way_ beyond just you wanting revenge for our Dimension D selves thwarting your plans there."

"You're quite right." Null narrowed his glowing red eyes to slits again. "Oh, you really don't know, do you?" He released a gravelly hoarse laugh before locking eyes with Leonardo once again. "I'll just go ahead and make it easy on you." He gave a sigh. "It may be hard for you to imagine, but I was once a very ordinary enough boy a long time ago in Reality. I had such a promising life ahead of me—or so I was told—and the sky was the limit. I remember, ironically, I was such a fan of something called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles..."

Leonardo's eyes widened with the shock of his sudden realization. The resemblance, the voice, deeper though it was—there could be no doubt. "My god... you're _Leon!"_

Null just gave him his trademark smile. "In the flesh... or something pretty close to it, at least."

"But your power, Leon... you couldn't have..."

Null's eyes flashed with even more devilishly red luminescence. "Let us just say... Maligna was not the first supreme... creature... I'd made a deal with in my lifetime." He paused as he continued his pacing. "I grew up in Reality hating you Turtles, you most especially. I burned all of my blasted Ninja Turtle possessions, my parents' house right along with them. I lived a life aloof... until I fell in with what you might call a Satanic Cult. I bled for them, I _killed_ for them... in the end I sold my soul to become a true demon... to have true _power."_ Null's eyes flashed again and he jabbed a finger at Leo. "You _made_ me! When I grew tired of my life on Earth, I began exploring other dimensions... I made my home in Dimension D, secure in my place as a businessman... for a time."

"Not long enough. Not by a longshot."

Null rolled his eyes. "Maybe you've read of my adventures during your time in Reality, though I must admit Mr. Dean Clarrain really only captured my bad side... you know what I mean?" He gave a short laugh. "When the Mutanimals came in the way of my plans, they were dealt with. Later, your Shogun came to me." Null smiled as Leo's own anger began to noticeably rise. "That's right, your older self came to visit me in Dimension D. He told me his plan to terminate all of your dimensions, to create a new Reality. He threatened to kill me if I didn't give him the power he sought to do so... but I gave it to him quite willingly—he would be doing me a favor. With this knowledge, I escaped Dimension D to finish what that foolish Shogun failed to do... terminate you and your wretched kind!"

Leonardo took a deep breath, shoving his anger aside. Sheathing his katana for the moment, he held an open hand to Null. "Leon... if that's really you, you have to believe me... I didn't mean to rob you of those years... I didn't mean to use you like that." He shook his head. "After we killed the Shogun I was thrown into your body—I don't know why. Leon, I—"

_"That name means nothing to me!"_ Null roared. "I am _Null_ now, the man who will be the one to finally end your miserable existence!" With that, the demonic man lunged at Leonardo with his wrist blades, raking him across the shoulder and plastron.

The Turtle stumbled back, clutching at his bleeding shoulder as he again drew his katana. "All right, all right," Leonardo nearly spat. "I'm through playing with you. You win... let's do this."

"By all means, let's."

"You get that shithead, Leo!" Raphael cheered from outside the force field.

"And Leon looked like such a sweet kid..." Donatello piped as well.

Leonardo clashed with Null, the winged man that now wore the guise of the Shredder parrying the Turtle's swings and thrusts with his bladed armor as he made thrusts of his own with his sword, a ninjato he had drawn from his side.

Null parried and blocked everything Leo threw at him, riposting with his ninjato. Leo grunted as Null's blade sliced through his forearm, vaulting out of the way before any further countermove came.

"Do you not see it is hopeless?" Null boomed at Leonardo. "Do you not see I am stronger than you, quicker than you... _better_ than you?"

"Never that..."

Leonardo delved back into the battle, swinging high with his katana while feigning to go low with his arm-blade... and coming around to make another high swing with his sword. While his opponent went low to block, the Turtle was already through the demon's defenses—his blade struck true, missing the demon's neck but cutting cleanly through his left wing nearly at the base. The wing fell to the ground, fluttering.

"Damn you, Leonardo!" Null shouted, holding at the bloodied stump of his maimed wing. "You will pay for that with your _blood!"_

"I don't think so, Leon," the Turtle calmly spoke. "Not today."

Null was shaking with anger now. "Don't call me that! _That is not my name!"_

The two stared each other down, about ten meters between the two of them. Each giving a respective grunt, it seemed clear their mutual, unspoken intent—they would make a run at one another... and one of them would be dying by the sword.

Leonardo broke first, running as fast as he could, dashing toward Null with everything he had. Passing the threshold, he leapt, his blade held firmly in place and his teeth gritted.

Null ran with inhuman speed, a cocksure grin etched on his face as he leapt at the same time as Leonardo, his ninjato poised as well. For what seemed like an eternity but was in fact only an instant, the two met each other in mid-flight.

When Leonardo landed, he was in one piece. When Null landed... he wasn't.

The Turtle closed his eyes, exhaled. His work was finished.

"Leonardo!" Raphael whooped from afar, raising a sai victoriously. "You got'im! Fuckface wants to be like Shredder he can go and die like him, too!"

"Way to go, bro!" Michaelangelo piped.

As the force field wavered and soon fell, in the moments that next passed the ghost-like Mutanimals made their way slowly to Leonardo's side. They stared down long and hard at the decapitated remains of Null. "Thank you, Leonardo," Man Ray offered at last, patting the Turtle on the shoulder.

With those parting three words from Man Ray, the seven Mutanimals disappeared.

"At last they can rest," Cherubae spoke with a smile, approaching Leonardo. "And now it is time for you and your brothers to return home... take advantage of every moment you guys have left."

Leonardo nodded weakly. "I would like to say goodbye... to our sensei."

Donatello grimaced. "We can't possibly have much longer left, not if we've burned to death as baby turtles in 1972. Thanks to Null."

"I hate parting gifts," Raphael seethed.

Renet appeared from behind Cherubae. The look on her face didn't seem promising. "There's a problem..." She shook the Sacred Sands of Time Sceptre in front of her futilely. "I'm all out of juice. The chronal energies I had... they're all gone. I used the last of it to buy you some more time and—"

"Greetings, Turtles!" came a loud, booming, almost cartoon-like voice. Hovering above them appeared was a gigantic disembodied floating cow head, a round metal stump at the base of its neck where its body should have been. "Somebody in need of an interdimensional ride...?"

"His name is Cudley Cowlick." Cherubae smiled meagerly at the Turtles, then nodded at Renet. "I saw this poor girl over here wasn't doing so good on energy so I took the liberty of calling you guys a lift. Hope you don't mind."

Mike seemed taken aback by the gigantic cow head, a mixture of astonishment and excitement playing out on his facial features. "Whoa... all right!"

Cudley smiled down at the Turtle. "Hello, Michaelangelo."

"Gah! It knows my _name!"_

"Of course I do, Michaelangelo." Cudley's eyes widened, his eyelids fluttering. "Elsetime."

Cherubae regarded all the Turtles with a quick, advisory glance. "Don't worry, you guys... he won't bite."

"Maybe you can explain to me..." Leonardo grunted at Cudley, "... just how are we supposed to trave..."

All of a sudden he had his answer before he could even finish the question. Cudley floated down to the ground, closed his eyes, opened his giant mouth and extended his tongue to the ground like a loading ramp.

Raphael cringed. "Oh, hell no... you have _got_ to be shitting me..."

Renet looked at Cherubae and shrugged, leading the way into Cudley's mouth. She beckoned back to the Turtles from halfway onto his tongue, "All aboard, guys! It's the Cudley express!"

It was time to go home one last time.


	8. Epilogue

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**E P I L O G U E**

_**  
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,  
but the silence of our friends."**_  
- Martin Luther King Jr.

**Earth (Dimension A); New York City, NY, May 30TH, 1972 A.D.**

A crowd of passersby watched in horror at the sight of the tiny pet shop as it burned down. The police officers on the scene told the civilians to back up in an orderly fashion so the fire engine could make its way in.

"Oh my god, those poor animals!" a young woman spoke, her tears welling up as the sound of sirens filled the streets.

"I heard it was some crazy arsonist who did this just a half hour ago!" a young teenaged boy said to his friend.

"Who the bloody hell would do such a thing?!" a bearded man in a construction uniform spoke angrily.

"It doesn't matter now, does it, Bobby?" his friend responded, placing his hand on the portly gentleman's shoulder. "There's nothing anyone could do now."

Before long the fire was put out with the diligent work of eight well-bodied firemen. The crowd began to abate. "All right, that's it! Nothing to see here folks," the Chief spoke to what was left of the gathering.

"Unless you want to see a bunch of cremated animal—"

"Hank! That was uncalled for!"

"Hey, Chief, you're not going to believe this. The entire aquarium survived the blaze!" one of the fire fighters called out from inside.

"Heh, well how about that?" the Chief said out loud. "Guess it's a good thing those little guys love the water!"

The crowd caught wind of the good news and everyone cheered the firemen on as they started to bring out several fishtanks and fishbowls filled with guppies, frogs, salamanders and turtles.

A couple of the fire fighters removed their helmets to better reveal themselves as they started passing several of the smaller aquatic creatures into the crowd, one of them being a young blond-haired woman.

Several of the men in the crowd were shocked to see such a beautiful soot covered face in uniform walk passed them. Several college kids even went so far as to give her a whistle. She smirked and silently gave them a wink just before she knelt down to a young boy. "Hey, kid... you look like the kinda boy who could use some friends."

"I-I just wanted to buy some turtles with my birthday money," he spoke, holding up a small wad of ten dollar bills.

"Chet, put that back in your pocket..." his father told him in as nice a manner as possible. "You wouldn't want anybody to take it from you, right?"

"No... I guess not," young Chet replied, as he put his cash away.

The fire woman smiled as she handed the boy a dry bowl containing four baby turtles. "In that case, these guys will be free of charge!"

"Th-thank you, ma'am!" Chet smiled as he reached out his hands and took the bowl.

The father laughed with delight. "Ha-hah, looks like that made his day! Thank you miss... um, what was your name?"

"Oh, you can call me... Tilley," she said with a grin on her face. "Have a nice day then!"

"We will!" Chet's father spoke as they crossed the corner into Main Street.

Little did a nearby elderly blind man know, slowly making his way across the street, that a truck emblazoned with the logo of "TCRI" was coming barreling down the other end of the street paying him very little mind...

* * *

**Earth (Dimension A); Northampton, MA, October 20TH, 2006 A.D.**

Leonardo awakened in what had to be the living room of Casey's old farmhouse in Northampton. Glancing up from the sofa he was laying on, he saw his brothers and Venus, their bandannas and protective pads put away now, staring down at him expectantly. For the first time since their adventure had begun, he really began to notice the age difference between himself and his brothers and Venus—they were, after all, sixteen years older than him assuming his Turtle form had not aged at all during his six years as Leon. From his best reckoning he was actually twenty-five years old—but now back in his nineteen year-old Turtle body—and his brothers were thirty-four, which made Venus thirty-two.

A bit disoriented, both from what must have been a long slumber and from that particular confusing line of thought, the Turtle quickly looked down to his left hand. It was still gone, metal cap still in place. "H-how long have I been out?" Leo asked.

Venus came around and sat next to him. "A full day... as soon as you arrived here you collapsed. You must have been exhausted."

He winced, then shook his head clear of cobwebs. "We're still here... we're still alive... why are we still alive?"

Raphael, Michaelangelo, and Donatello exchanged a look. Donatello was the one to speak, "We don't know, Leo. Best guess is... either history still turned out the way it should have, or maybe Renet bought us more time than she thought."

Raph gave a frown. "I don't like it. We shouldn't be alive... you guys saw that pet shop burnt to shit plain as I did. I just got this feeling like any moment, poof, we're gonna bite it."

Mike gave an exasperated shrug. "Maybe Null torched the wrong pet shop, guys, who knows—we're still here! Let's not knock it."

Leo nodded. He wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth... just yet. With Venus' help, he stood. "Please, my brothers... take me to see the Master."

The Turtles exchanged a look of worry. Michaelangelo scratched his head.

Venus gave the three Turtles a look of scorn. "You... you did not tell him? How could you not tell him!"

"Tell me what? What is it?" He looked angrily to each of his brothers. "Take me to Splinter!"

For an uncomfortable moment, nobody spoke. Finally, Raphael rested an uncertain palm on his brother's shoulder. "He's dead, Brother. He passed away two years ago." He looked down. "You weren't here, man. You weren't here."

Leo turned away, shaking his brother's hand off of him. Saying nothing, he stalked out of the living room and out the front door.

"It was natural causes," Donatello offered, but Leonardo was already gone.

Venus started for the door as well. "I will follow your brother, I will calm him down..."

Donatello stopped her short. "Maybe it's best to let him go, Venus... it's going to take some time for everything to sink in for him. He's been through a lot."

The female Turtle gave a sigh. "Have not we all?"

* * *

A day had passed since Leonardo had set out from the farmhouse. He had lost himself in the great expanse of Northampton's forests, resting when he was tired, drinking from the river when he was thirsty.

Finally, as rain and night alike began to fall, now atop the tallest hillside he could find Leonardo ended his vigil. Stabbing his katana into the grassy earth at his feet, he raised both arms to the cloudy skies above.

"Renet! Hear me!" he roared. "Renet! Take me back... this is not my home... I want the past sixteen years back—I will not stay here!" He paused for breath. "Our master, our father... he is dead here; I could have stopped it, I could have prevented it. Damn you, Renet—_answer_ me! Send me back to the beginning! Hear me!"

Lightning flashed across the night sky, thunder rolling over the land and sounding quite nearby.

"Renet! _Please!"_

A bolt of lightning lanced down, striking a nearby tree. Another one, even closer. A third lightning bolt struck Leonardo directly... and he was gone.

* * *

**Archie Earth (Dimension D); Fairbanks, AK, May 23RD 1994**

An empty void in the continuum, untouched for years, began flickering to life. Galaxies, star systems, and worlds began to take shape where previously had only been Entropy.

Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, and Ninjara and couldn't help but feel lightheaded as they witnessed what could only be the regeneration of their own reality. Memories of long forgotten adventures in the past, present and even the future flashed before them.

"Don, what's happening?" Leo asked.

"I-I'm not sure, exactly! Our dimension—our _world _seems to be reconstituting itself."

Don and Leo could barely hold their heads up as they felt themselves being pulled into the warp and deposited into what looked like a small village run by wolf people much like Ninjara's race. The Turtles, now dressed in winter gear, came to realize they were now standing with their brother Michaelangelo and April O'Neil while Raph and Ninjara were sitting together on a snow bank.

"Um, are you guys okay?" April asked. "You seem kind of freaked out all of a sudden!"

"Jeeze, come on! Those mutant polar bears couldn't have been _that_ scary!" Mike added.

"It's not that, Mikey. I was just—" Don tried to explain, but alas he could feel his memory of the whole escapade with Renet, Venus and the alternate dimensions' Turtles slowly dissipate from his memory. _The Entropy must've found a way to correct our history somehow... even despite Null and the Shogun's interference,_ he thought to himself. Leo put his hand on Donatello's shoulder as he nodded his head towards Mike and April. His memory was also beginning to reset itself. "It's... better, I think, that you guys don't know."

Meanwhile on the snow bank, Raphael and Ninjara looked at each other sweetly. "So, um… I don't know what to say. I mean, I do, but…"

"Raph, listen. I was going to tell you how I've been feeling about my needs… needs that I've been neglecting."

"It's okay, Ninjara. I understand. In a way I saw this coming. I guess that's why I've been such an idiot lately! I didn't know how to deal with it. After everything that happened in that other dimension, I realized just how futile it is to try and manipulate fate. That's why I don't want to hold you back from finding your true destiny!"

"Raph, if we part ways like this... I don't know if we can work out our relationship or not. All I know is that I want us to stay in touch somehow. This way we could have a chance... in the future." She took his hand and squeezed it. "We just need some time is all."

Raphael nodded, slowly wiping away some tears in his face. "Aw, damn snowflakes!"

The fox woman smiled and held the Turtle close to her, giving him a tender kiss before sending him to reunite with his brothers who were saying their goodbyes to Mokoshan, the leader of the wolf village. "Farewell, Raphael."

Raph nodded his head in shame. "Mok, I'm sorry I… lashed out at you. It was uncalled for."

"No worries, my friend," the wolf spoke as he waved to the Turtles and April one last time.

As the reporter and her longtime friend trekked through the wilderness, April let out a long-winded sigh. "So she's staying behind?"

"Yep, but we agreed to keep in touch," Raph said with a smile.

"Glad to see you're in good spirits over it," Michaelangelo exclaimed. "You know what they say... if you love something, set it free."

"I know, Mike," Raphael said as he gave his brother a bear hug. "Plus like it's been said—better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all!"

* * *

**Earth (Dimension A); New York City, NY, December 20TH, 1990 A.D.**

It had been three days since the Turtles and Venus had fought the Shogun at the End of Time, four since their loss to the Lady Shredder and Cheng. Leonardo was still missing, Renet having told them she had no answers to their questions.

The blue-bandannaed Venus, her dimension having been eradicated only those three days ago, had adjusted well to her new home in Dimension A. She was not a true sister to these Turtles—but then she wasn't to the Turtles of her own dimension either—yet she already felt as part of their family. Having lost their brother, the Turtles seemed to have welcomed the notion of accepting a new sister readily.

"Very well, Turtles... I feel we are nearly ready for our vengeance against the Lady Shredder," the masked Oroku Pimiko spoke to the Turtles as she leaned out the stairway exit of their mausoleum den in Westwood Cemetery. "I will see you tomorrow night."

Raphael held a hand up to bid her goodbye, wiping his head with a hand towel. The Turtles and their former enemy had nearly spent the entire day in training. "Later, Pimiko."

One by one, the Turtles headed to their sleeping chambers to turn in for the night, Venus the last to do so.

The female Turtle knelt by her mattress, her eyes closed and her hands clasped together, fought back tears as she prayed for the spirits of her own Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michaelangelo, Splinter, and everyone from that dimension taken before their time by the Shogun's machinations of evil.

"Venus."

As Venus turned, Leonardo stood just a few feet away in her doorway. He held back her curtain with his only hand.

"Leonardo...?" she spoke, standing. "You have returned... your brothers and I were worried... you have been gone for three days, we—"

Leo shook his head and stepped further into her bedchamber. "It's been a lot longer than that... but it's complicated."

"O-oh...?" Venus stammered. Leonardo was closer now, right in front of her.

Leonardo looked deep into her eyes, and her into his. "You're not alone, Mei Pieh Chi... and you'll never be again. I promise you."

The two Turtles, lost in the moment, lost in their grief, locked with one another in a passionate embrace. Venus' lips quickly found his, their hands traveling over each other's bodies.

* * *

Venus startled awake in the early morning hours, her body and limbs intertwined with Leonardo's under the covers of her bed. Her mind was still filled with memories of their lovemaking the previous night, memories she did her best to push aside then.

Quietly, stealthily, she lifted the covers and made her way to the end of her bedchamber. Gathering her things, tying her baby-blue bandanna around her eyes, she gave Leonardo a fond glance before exiting.

_The Turtles are all still sleeping, _she knew, _best to leave now. They will never understand... they will try to convince me to stay... maybe even succeed. They have their brother back now; their leader. They will not mourn my leave for long._

Her eyes passing one final time over the den of the Turtles, Venus headed up the mausoleum's stairway exit.

_I do not belong here,_ she thought to herself as she began to sprint across Westwood Cemetery's grassy environs. _It was foolish to believe I could have made a home here... foolish, and I dishonor the memory of my own Turtles. _

Resting, just for a moment, against a simple tree, Venus' furrowed her brow as she thought long and hard about the decision she was making. Tears streaked down her cheeks.

_Chung I... what have I done?_

* * *

**The 79TH Level of Null-Time (Dimension Null)**

There was much celebration going on in the Palisade at this point in time! Renet and her new friend Cherubae were enjoying some fresh mixed martinis that were plucked from the year 1965 as they watched the changes taking shape for their respective worlds. Renet smiled watching the sight of Leo now back in his rightful place in time just before the viewscreen switched over to the now-reestablished Dimension D Earth.

Cherubae clapped and have a hearty "Bravo!" at the scene of Ninjara making amends with Raphael before they went their separate ways.

"It's nice to see everything put back the way it was originally, isn't it...?" Renet asked.

"Give or take, but you can sure say that again!" the alien woman exclaimed in a somewhat tipsy manner. "Still, I must admit that the Turtles of my dimension really should have been the dominant ones of this whole escapade..."

"Um, just what's that supposed to mean?" the Timestress asked.

"Well for one thing, it was their enemy that was the cause of all this... sorta. Plus it would've been nice... in the grand cosmic scheme of things if they had gotten to see the Mutanimals just one last time," Cherubae went on.

"With all due respect, it was my Leonardo that inhabited young Leon! Not only that, Dimension A is the very first version of the Ninja Turtles ever created… the template, the source... the universe Eastman and Laird created. Your Turtles are from what, Dimension _D?"_

"Yeah, 'D' for _do not screw with my dimension!"_

_"Pfft._ Not to mention it happens to be a facsimile of Dimension C! Hello, Cherubae, can we say... _spinoff?"_

"So what? My guys have saved an entire _galaxy_ from total destruction. What did yours do?"

Renet became apprehensive. "That's not a very fair assumption on the matter! I mean, just because the Ninja Turtles of Dimension A never faced off against an alien invasion, it doesn't mean they couldn't! Hell, odds are they probably _will_ be dealing with one what with all the crazy shit going down with the Utroms, and if you count that time in 1989 they prevented a Triceraton planetship from colliding with the Earth, then they did!"

"Oh, give it up, sister! Warlord Krang would've demolished those puny aliens faster than he slaughtered Wingnut and Screwloose's people!"

"Okay, not that's just messed up!" Renet responded, coughing up martini that got caught in her windpipe. "You know what, I think you've had too much to drink."

Cherubae drew back, putting her hands on her hips defensively. _"Excuse_ me, but who's the one getting choked up on liquor here?"

"Oh, that does it, you alien witch!" Renet spoke as she smacked her friend in the face.

The two of them started play-wrestling one another to the ground, rolling over each other as each woman fought to gain an advantage. Before long, their aggression turned to fits of laughing hysteria as they came to their senses. "Aw, man, what was that all about...?" Cherubae asked.

"I dunno. I guess... I guess we let our pride get the better of us. Oh well, no harm done. Let's just thank God Michaelangelo wasn't here to see our little... what do you call it?"

Cherubae grinned. "Chick fight?"

"That's it!"

"I know, Renet!" the drunken alien burst. "Can you just imagine like every version of Mike, A through E standing over us, holding up beers and cheering like a bunch of frat boys? Mmm-hmm." The mental image was more than enough to make the girls laugh out loud as they helped each other up.

Just then, the viewscreen flickered another strange view. It was the four turtles of Dimension C attending what looked something like a high school graduation ceremony.

"Whoa, this is new!" Cherubae noted. "I never knew there was a high school drama about the Ninja Turtles."

"No, that's the original cartoon Turtles... yet they seem different in a way. It looks almost as if this is a strange amalgam of the real world combined with their destroyed dimension. That one boy standing near Mikey... I can sense he has some incredible ability," she said as she sifted through the timeline, which seemed to go through an odd loop. "Okay... this is weird."

"What?" the alien asked.

"Apparently this world—now deemed Dimension J—went through a strange time-pull in 1999, causing that Earth to repeat the last seven years of the twentieth century," Renet explained as an image of the young man in question mutated himself into a Ninja Turtle, his hair still on his head.

"Wow, this is amazing! So you're saying that this dimension exists in the present, even though it's set seven years in the past?"

"Exactly, Cher! If I weren't mistaken, I'd say this boy Jeff was one of those fans me and the Turtles passed by at that convention in California. That means that his very imagination could be what brought this little pocket universe of sorts to life."

"A pocket universe? What is this, Krypton we're talking about now?"

"Don't be silly, now! I mean it makes perfect sense that at least one or more of the Turtles' fans have dreamed of actually becoming one of them and having incredible strength! I must say though, it's quite interesting that the boy picked Dimension C of all versions to imprint his world after."

"That's probably because it's the version of them that he grew up with. He chose them because they're a deep-rooted portion of his childhood memories!"

"Thank you, Dr. Freud!" Renet said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, what say we conjure up some transdimensional popcorn and watch some of this kid's adventures with his pals?"

"Sounds good to me!"

All was well in the universe.

**F I N**


	9. Coda : Deliverance

**"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Deliverance"**

**Coda  
D E L I V E R A N C E  
**

_  
**"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."**_  
- Napoleon

**Earth (Dimension A); Northampton, MA, December 12TH, 2159 A.D.**

"This way, my brothers... stay with me..."

In single-file, the four elderly Ninja Turtles made their way through the forests of Northampton's snowy hills. Refusing any aid of hovercar, guide, or other assistance, they had been trekking across the snow-laden landscape for the better part of two days. They were seemingly no closer to their destination than when they had first started out.

"You old _fool!"_ Raphael cackled at who looked to be Leonardo, his hoarse old voice almost inaudible. The outburst nearly caused him to double over in pain, but he did so regardless. "You've led us astray! I've had it!"

Leonardo coughed to clear his throat, then shot a wizened gaze at his angry brother. "Almost two hundred years, Brother... do you still not trust me, my leadership?"

The elderly Raphael held his brother's gaze for a few uncomfortable moments. He soon relented. "I do, Brother. Lead us."

They continued on their path, into the underbrush. At one point Donatello lost his footing as he crossed a large root. Both Michaelangelo and Raphael darted as best they could to catch him mid-fall, but they were a moment too late. Their brother fell headlong into the snow-covered ground.

Donatello waved away his brothers' help, his old legs shaking as he stood back to his feet. It had been an old affliction, one that had plagued him most of the past two decades. "I'm all right, brothers... please, let us keep moving..."

As they continued to follow Leonardo in clomping through the snow-covered thick brush and forestry—though somewhat diminished in the year 2159, was still more than prevalent enough for one to get lost in—the four Turtles' thoughts began to drift elsewhere.

It had been two days ago to the hour when they had first set off into the cold winter wilderness of Northampton. Almost a week previous, all at once, the Turtles had grown ill in their homes. Doctors and modern twenty-second century medicine, even nanotechnology, could do nothing... the best human and Utrom physicians in the world—and the Sol System at large—had given the Turtles a week, two tops, to sort out their affairs. Their disease, blood-borne, was found to be incurable.

At one hundred and eighty-seven years old, the Turtles were dying.

"I-I'm cold, Leo..." Mike spoke to his brother from behind, shivering.

"We are almost there, my brother... I can feel it in my bones." Leonardo would lead his brothers this one last time, and they were so close to their destination.

Donatello had been the one to suggest it, Leonardo the one to gather the rest. It had seemed so obvious, so clear of a choice. In 1989, at the peak of their youth, they had inadvertently wandered into the Hall of Lost Legends, been told they were "early" and after a short adventure were sent back on their way.

So many years, decades spent cheating death, there would be no running from it this time. This was not an enemy they fought now, but rather time itself. All four brothers had come to the same realization: they could die in their beds... or take their rightful place in the Hall of Lost Legends.

In the year 2159, their lives and journeys nearly at an end, the Turtles felt their time was finally right... but time was running out.

They came to a stop as twinkling gossamer filled the air as will-o'-the-wisps, energies coursing through the air around them to set twenty meters in front of where they then stood in awe.

"It's here! It really is!"

"It is..."

"It is just as I remember it..."

A grand, majestic castle-like structure materialized before the four brothers, its regal brick walls and buttresses extending almost indefinitely in either direction and a gigantic tower-like structure sprouting from the center up into the sky as far as their eyes could see.

A massive double-door creaked open in front of the Turtles. An all too familiar doorman was there waiting, quite eager to greet them.

"Ah," the ever-youthful Locke—not Loki this time, they felt certain—spoke as they stood before him, "you four are right on time. Come in, come in!" Locke smiled joyously at each of them. "Welcome to the Hall of Lost Legends, gentlemen!"

The Turtles exchanged a heavy sigh and fond glance with one another as they entered.

"It's been a hell of a run," Michaelangelo spoke softly.

The four elderly brothers nodded in agreement, the double-doors closing shut behind them.

No regrets.

**F I N**


	10. Author's Notes

**Quick author's Notes on TMNT: Deliverance...**

This was written and completed in October of 2005 by Andrew Modeen and Jeff Oughton, with help from Sharon Lee.

It's actually the equel to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Transcension," which was completed in 2000. A quick search here of "transcension" should turn it up... I suggest you give it a read.

There is a third story in the works... "Ascension," which will bring the trilogy to a close.


End file.
